Hey, Green Eyes
by blackberet
Summary: An Al Bhed free agent gets more than she bargains for when she's signed by the Aurochs to play in the next blitzball tournament. Will she be able to come to terms with her past and become a blitz ace--in a world where she's the only one with green eyes?
1. Tackle Slip

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Also, I just spent the last of my money buying a Tidus doll, so please don't sue me. ^__^;;  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 1: Tackle Slip  
  
**********  
  
The brilliant, jewel-like lights of Macalania Temple danced in my eyes. The snow, which up until then had been searing my exposed skin, suddenly felt like a warm feather quilt. I looked up, dreamily, and realized the sky had never looked so blue.  
  
I was actually getting sappy enough to think crap like that as I sat down carefully on the steps of the temple, wrapped my arms around my knees, and waited to die.  
  
Let me tell you: I was not in good shape here. I was freezing my butt off. Al Bhed aren't used to cold anyway--c'mon, our Home's in the desert; who needs sub-zero temperatures in a tropical oasis?--and I was wearing this skimpy blitzball uniform. Plus I was starving and irritated and starting to think that maybe this whole kidnapping-the-summoner thing wasn't such a hot idea, after all.  
  
I was *really* irritated by the time they showed up, because the dying thing wasn't working out for me either. I'd been through several interesting shades of blue and my stomach hurt like a bitch, but I had yet to croak or even come close. So when the blond guy with the entourage showed up and interrupted the traditional flashing of my life before my eyes, I snapped grouchily in Al Bhed, "E's rihkno."  
  
If the rest of the group had been there, I probably would have gotten to go back to kicking the bucket, but as it turned out, Blondie was the only one who approached me. He started to say something in halting Al Bhed, but right then a familiar voice piped up from the group, "Rana!" and a chunk of bread hurtled through the air and hit me on the head.  
  
I stared at it for maybe a millisecond or two, ignoring the bread crumbs in my hair, then crammed the whole thing in my mouth and scarfed it down.  
  
When I'd eaten every single crumb, I looked up through my slightly frosty goggles to see who owned the voice and found Aniki's little sister, Rikku, standing there.  
  
"Linnie!" she yelped, throwing her arms around me in that enthusiastic way of hers that tended to grate on my already-short nerves. "Fryd yna oui tuehk rana?"  
  
"Cdynjehk," I replied, disentangling myself. "E lysa uid rana du veht *ran,*" I jerked my thumb at the summoner, who was engaged in an animated discussion with Fuzzbrain Ronso and Madame Goth, "yht frah dryd cdibet pnudran uv ouinc pyemat uid, E kud rubamaccmo mucd. Yht *druca* kioc," here a thumb-jerk at the temple, "yna cu funneat ypuid yh esbina Al Bhed tavemehk draen nydruma uv y dasbma drao fuh'd ajah mad sa ehceta."  
  
"Ur, hu, dryd'c dannepma!" Rikku cried in Al Bhed, instantly concerned for my plight. I cringed. Bubbly-type cheerleaderish girls like Rikku have always driven me up the wall, and I could tell she was ready to either burst into sympathetic tears or go beat up whoever had stranded me here. Aside from the fact that it was all her brother's fault, it wouldn't have been a bad idea--I had a sinking feeling that I wasn't going to see my money anytime soon.  
  
"Hey," Blondie said behind her, "Yna oui bynahdc frana? Femm drao ryja lusa du muug vun oui?"  
  
He was talking in textbook Al Bhed, but he was conjugating verbs like the kid who sleeps in the back of the room. I got the point, so I stood up and faced him. "Do I look like a little kid to you?" I demanded, hands on hips, letting him take in the bloody skintight blitzball uniform. "My parents aren't coming for me."  
  
"Oh," he said in English.  
  
I ignored him and turned to Rikku. "Is Wondergirl coming to pray at the temple?" I asked.  
  
"Yes," she answered. "I am Yunie's guardian."  
  
"Great." I rubbed my arms, trying to get the circulation back, then shoved my gloved hands in my armpits to keep them warm. "More power to her. Damn if I'm gonna get myself Popsicled just to convince her she's a moron."  
  
"Don't say that!" Rikku cried. "Yunie--she thinks she can really stop Sin! And--she's my cousin!"  
  
"If you really think that this chick getting herself fried will stop Sin, you're as stupid as she is. If she's your cousin and you think that's justification for you to get killed along with her, hey, go for it. But do you really think she can succeed where our machina have failed?" I asked.  
  
"Fine! If you think that, you can be the first one to die when Sin comes back!" she yelled.  
  
"Sin always comes back! It killed my parents, it'll probably kill me too. And there's nothing a little girl with a stick can do about it. Don't you get it? Sin always comes back!"  
  
She didn't have a comeback. We were just standing there glaring at each other. "Fine," I spat afer a while. "Do what you want. Thanks for the food, but let's call it even for my advice. And tell that brother of yours that he's a self-righteous idiot, and the whole thing would've worked just fine if he hadn't turned and fled like a complete pansy!"  
  
There was an awkward silence as I turned to go--don't ask me where, I guess I figured that the stupid dinner roll had given me enough energy to hike through a blizzard or something--but then I heard a voice behind me. In the same halting Al Bhed, Blondie said, "Ouin lmudrehk."  
  
"What about it?" I asked wearily, in English. *I* stayed awake in language classes.  
  
Gratefully, he switched to English. "It looks like a blitzball uniform. You blitz?"  
  
"Yeah." I sighed. "Who doesn't, these days?"  
  
"It's not regulation, though." He was studying the boots and the short, tailored bodysuit. "What team do you play for?"  
  
I slouched against the wall--when a blitzer wants to talk game, you know you're not going anywhere for a while. "I'm a free agent. Forward."  
  
"Are you any good?" he asked bluntly.  
  
I raised an eyebrow at him. "My trademark move is Nap Shot 3, babe."  
  
He gave a low whistle. "I've gotta see this."  
  
"You got a ball?" I asked.  
  
"Hey, Wakka," he called to a red-haired guy standing in the entourage, "lemme see the ball for a second."  
  
"For what?" the guy asked. Belatedly, I picked up on the Besaid Aurochs uniform. Oh, shoot, I knew this guy. He was that old Aurochs captain who retired after the last tournament.  
  
Blondie gestured at me. "She's gonna show me something."  
  
Shrugging, Wakka tossed him the ball. I took my right hand out of my armpit, blew on it, and caught the ball neatly in one glove when Blondie threw it to me. "It's cold, ain't it?" I muttered. "Ugyo, ev E tu drec, oui'mm mad sa ku, nekrd?" He nodded. I lowered the ball in my right hand, closed my eyes for an instant to focus the black cloud of whatever-it-is that adds nap to a shot--don't ask me what it is; I have no clue--on the ball, and kicked it so that it went sailing halfway into the stratosphere.  
  
"Whoa," Blondie and Wakka breathed as one.  
  
"You think that's cool?" As I said it, the ball zipped straight back down into my waiting glove. I spun it on one finger, and bounced it off my heel back to Blondie, who caught it mechanically, still watching me.  
  
"Linnie, that was amazing!" Rikku burst out, too excited to remember she was supposed to be mad at me.  
  
"Who is this girl?" Wakka asked in Besaid-accented English.  
  
Blondie bowed to me in the blitzer's salute. "She's the new forward for the Besaid Aurochs."  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"E's rihkno." - "I'm hungry."  
  
"Rana!" - "Here!"  
  
"Fryd yna oui tuehk rana?" - "What are you doing here?"  
  
"E lysa uid rana du veht *ran,* yht frah dryd cdibet pnudran uv ouinc pyemat uid, E kud rubamaccmo mucd. Yht *druca* kioc, yna cu funneat ypuid yh esbina Al Bhed tavemehk draen nydruma uv y dasbma drao fuh'd ajah mad sa ehceta." - "I came out here to find *her,* and when that stupid brother of yours bailed out, I got hopelessly lost. And *those* guys are so worried about an impure Al Bhed defiling their rathole of a temple they won't even let me inside."  
  
"Ur, hu, dryd'c dannepma!" - "Oh, no, that's terrible!"  
  
"Yna oui bynahdc frana? Femm drao ryja lusa du muug vun oui?" - "Are you parents where? Will they have come to look for you?"  
  
"Ouin lmudrehk." - "Your clothing."  
  
"Ugyo, ev E tu drec, oui'mm mad sa ku, nekrd?" - "Okay, if I do this, you'll let me go, right?" 


	2. Venom Tackle

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I'll give you Pocky if you promise not to sue me. ^__^  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 2: Venom Tackle  
  
**********  
  
I think the first sound I made was something like "Whaaaa?" It could've been more like "huh?" or maybe even "whoa!" but it wouldn't have made any difference.  
  
"Look, babe," was the second thing I said, "I'm flattered, but I don't even know who the hell you are--"  
  
He smacked his forward. "Tidus." Pose. "Star of the Zanarkand Abes!"  
  
"Yeah, okay, great," I said, wanting to get away from the crackpot. "I'm Linna. Well, it's been fun, but--"  
  
"Hey, wait, wait, you can't leave," Wakka protested. "That was unbelievable! With that shot of yours, we're definitely gonna win the tournament this season!"  
  
"Look, we just won our first tournament last season," Tidus explained. "We wanna keep the streak going. I don't know what you're asking per game for next week's tournament, but we'll find a way to get it somehow."  
  
I gulped and started calculating in my head. Then I scrapped the calculations and went for broke. "900 gil a game good for you guys?"  
  
"Linna," Tidus said, his face breaking into a wide grin, "you've got yourself a deal!"  
  
*****  
  
So that's how it happened that I ended up standing in the middle of Luca a week later, lost as hell and still not entirely convinced that I shouldn't've just gone back Home to tend my hydroponic garden or something. I'd borrowed one of the motorbikes Tidus and the Entourage had been using to get back to the Macalania travel agency, and from there I hitched a ride to the second-biggest city in Spira.  
  
I'm gonna be honest here: Luca scared the hell outta me the first time I saw it. It was *huge*. I couldn't walk two feet without slamming into someone. There were lights and noise everywhere. The whole thing was a crazy techno dream.  
  
Lucky thing for me here: although Luca's pretty big, the whole city's pretty much laid out around the blitzball stadium. It's almost on an island, with the sphere in the center, surrounded by the five docks, and a long walkway linking it to the rest of the city. You can literally see the sphere from anywhere. That means that the crowd was all moving in one direction--towards the arena. So I figured, "When in Luca, do as the Lucans do" and joined the mindless herd of blitzball fans surging on towards glory.  
  
The unlucky part was that the stadium--newsflash here--is also really big. The complex includes a central desk, the arena with the sphere, a ring of five docks, the locker rooms, seating areas, and the quarters of Luca's home team, the Goers. This means that it's insanely easy to get lost before you even get out of the lobby, which is where I was wandering around blankly when someone clapped me on the back. "Hey!" Tidus greeted me. "You made it!"  
  
"Yeah, mostly. I think I mighta lost a finger or two in that mob out there," I deadpanned.  
  
"You'll get used to it pretty quickly. I hear blitzball's kinda the main thing around here."  
  
"You hear?" I asked. "It's only the number one spectator sport in Spira. Even out in the boonies you're from, you should know that."  
  
"Actually, that's a funny story." I was waiting to hear the funny story, but he barrelled ahead. "Anyway, let me take you to the locker room and introduce you to the guys."  
  
He bounded up the stairs and down a hallway. I trudged after him. The second I caught up, he continued through the hall until he reached a door, which he proceeded to knock nearly off its hinges by flinging it open. "Hey, everyone," he yelled, "This is Linna. She's our newest recruit!"  
  
I was behind him in the doorway by this time, so I could see the team. They were frozen like petrified Fenrir.  
  
They stared.  
  
I stared.  
  
I don't think any of us liked what we were eyeballing. What I saw was a motley crew of five guys, all of whom looked just slightly substandard in the intelligence department, and all of whom were just a little bit pudgier than they showed up on the spheres where I'd seen the last tournament. What they saw was an Al Bhed chick in a skimpy outfit and gloves as big as her head, looking just slightly substandard in the height department. Nobody was impressed.  
  
Finally, one of them blurted out, "She's a girl."  
  
I put my hands on my hips and sneered in flawless English, "How long did that one take you?" Hah. I didn't even have an accent. Take that, you uncultured losers.  
  
"She's a *short* girl," someone else said.  
  
"Their power of deduction is amazing," I muttered in amazement to Tidus.  
  
"They're just not used to new players. These guys've been playing together since they could walk," he whispered back.  
  
"Hey, guys," he said out loud. "I know we've never had a girl on the team before, but I think Linna will be a great addition to the Aurochs. I saw her Nap Shot 3--she's amazing. She's gonna blow all the goalies away this year."  
  
"So she's a forward?" asked the pale guy in front.  
  
Tidus started to answer and then realized what the real question was. He sighed, running exasperated fingers through his shock of blond hair, and answered, "Look, Datto, we're just putting her in for the tournament. You're still on the team, you just won't be playing."  
  
Datto was silent, but if looks could kill, I would've been writhing in bloody agony inside one of the lockers.  
  
I was trying to come up with something appropriately scathing to say ("Yeah, well, your uniforms are geeky anyway!" would've been nice, but of course I didn't come up with it until later), but luckily I didn't have to--Wakka burst in right at that moment. "Linna!" he enthused, leaving me wondering if the guy ever said anything without five pounds of emotion poured over the top, "Glad you got to meet the boys already. The first game's tomorrow. We've gotta go out for the opening ceremonies, but then let's get practicing, ya?"  
  
"Yessir, Cap'n Wakka!" the team yelled as one. I jumped like a foot and a half straight in the air, startled, then grudgingly followed them out.  
  
*****  
  
"So what's up with these opening ceremonies?" I whispered to Tidus.  
  
"I'm not really sure. They were pretty boring last year. And there are these two commentators from Luca that really make me mad--Bobba and Jimma. Ignore everything they say, 'cause we blew 'em away last year."  
  
We were heading out to the docks, where it seemed all the action was. Tidus and I were at the back of the group of Aurochs. Crowds were clogging the sides of the ports, cheering. Vendors were hawking candy and food and blitzball souveniers. Team flags and banners were flying everywhere. It was like a giant street festival.  
  
Tidus dodged over to one side suddenly, and I saw him talking to Rikku and the summoner girl. They appeared to be wishing him luck, and the summoner gave his hand a brief, secret squeeze. I started looking around at the other teams. I could see the blue cloud of Ronso Fangs standing in Dock 4 and hear the deep rumbling of their voices. It seemed like most of the attention was focused on Dock 3, where a ship was pulling in.  
  
"It's the LUCA GOERS!" screamed a voice over the loudspeaker. The crowd went absolutely nuts. Tidus, who was back next to me, scowled. So did the rest of the Aurochs.  
  
"What's the problem with the Goers?" I hissed to Tidus.  
  
"They're jerks!" he snapped. "Two of them in particular--their captain, Bickson, and Graav, the center. Last year we beat them 2-1 in the championship match." His blue eyes narrowed to slits. "We'll do it again this year."  
  
"The Goers are really going to make a comeback this tournament, aren't they, Bobba?" asked the loudspeaker voice again.  
  
"That's right, Jimma," another voice agreed. "After a minor setback in last season's Yevon Cup tournament, the Luca Goers are ready to take back the Cup for their hometown once again!"  
  
I watched the team walk out onto the dock as the screams reached a fever pitch. "See the redhead?" Tidus pointed to the tall, well-built guy in front. "Bickson."  
  
"Yeah, I know who most of these people are," I told him. I followed all the sphere games, and the Goers were well-known as one of the best teams in Spira. I noticed that one of the female guards was on crutches, and a slight, short-haired woman in a long blue dress was standing at the back of the group, looking out of place.  
  
"Thank you!" the intercom squawked again. I looked up to see Bickson holding the microphone. "It's good to be home!" Croad roars. Scattered fangirl screams. "This year," Bickson continued, "we're going to bring the honor of the Yevon Cup back home to Luca! This one's for you guys!"  
  
"Well said, Bickson," commented Bobba. The captain handed the microphone back to Jimma and led the rest of the team out of the docks and into the complex. "Moving on, then..." Bobba continued, "There's one more team on this ship, folks! From the sands of Sanubia, here are the Al Bhed Psyches!"  
  
I stifled the urge to cheer for MY hometown team. I knew every single stat of every single player for the Psyches. There was the goalie and captain, Nimrook; the two guards, Judda and Lakkam; the forwards, Eigaar and Blappa, and the center, Berrik.  
  
But the Aurochs were glaring at them too. "We don't like the Psyches either?" I asked Tidus.  
  
"Well, they tried to kidnap Yuna at the last tournament and ransom her in exchange for winning a match," he explained. "But...Wakka and the others don't like them much anyway."  
  
I was about to ask what was wrong with the Al Bhed team when I was interrupted by Jimma's voice. "All right, Bobba, it's time for the start of the opening ceremonies."  
  
*****  
  
I still didn't get the point. Some maester guy talked for a long time. The crowd and the teams had some kind of mass prayer session. As they all bowed in unison, I looked out across the sea of backs and saw the only other people standing straight were the Al Bhed Psyches, an army of six. Suddenly I began to wonder whether our lack of belief in Yevon would cause any problems for us.  
  
I got my answer when I was walking out of the stadium and a glob of spit hit me on the back of the head. I whirled, and someone grabbed my arm and hissed, "Maybe you'll fool everyone else with those goggles of yours, but you don't fool me. You're a heathen, and you'll fry for your sins, you sacreligious Al Bhed!"  
  
I never saw his face. I never found out who he was. But as I started to make my way back to the locker room to get ready for practice, a nagging feeling of uneasiness was sinking down to the pit of my stomach. 


	3. Pile Venom

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
If you try to sue me, I'll sic my pet cosplaying Auron-chan on ya. ^__~ (*Auron-chan flees in terror* Hey! Come back here! I STILL HAVEN'T GLOMPED YOU YET!)  
  
Ahem.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 3: Pile Venom  
  
**********  
  
If you've never blitzed in the Luca sphere, let me tell you: it is the coolest place ever. The massive two-tiered arena seats thousands of spectators, and when they're all cheering, the effect is electrifying. The water is warm--not too hot, but just perfect for getting your muscles warmed up. So by the time I took a deep breath and surged into the sphere, I was almost feeling okay.  
  
Didn't last. The warm fuzzy feeling went poof as soon as the captains opened their mouths.  
  
No one actually talks in a blitz sphere, in case you're unfamiliar with the general physics of trying to speak underwater. People mouth their words, and most of us are so used to reading lips that half the time we're convinced we can hear it.  
  
"Okay," Wakka "said", "You guys know how we do this. We're gonna split the team up so each side has a forward, a center, and a guard. Since Keepa--" out of the corner of my eye I caught Tidus' nod toward the pudgiest of the Aurochs, apparently the goalie "--is the only goalie, we're only gonna use one goal, ya? Okay, now let's get to it!"  
  
The team all seemed to know where to go. Datto started swimming toward his position--apparently in right sphere--but Wakka called, "Ey, Datto, you're warmin' the bench this time."  
  
"Can he do the goal?" Tidus asked.  
  
"Good idea," Wakka agreed. "Nevermind, you're on the away goal!"  
  
Grumbling, Datto changed course and headed for the goal opposite Keepa, who was surreptitiously trying to shove something that looked like a doughnut into his mouth. I was watching this when Tidus called, "Linna, you're on right forward!"  
  
"Ay ay, Captain!" I yelled back with as much enthusiasm as I could muster--i.e., slightly less than none--and started stroking toward the far end of the sphere. I had almost gotten there when something hit my ass--hard. I turned just in time to see the ball bounce away and catch the expression on the other forward's face.  
  
You have no idea of the kind of effort I had to make to keep from cramming that blitzball down his throat. Keeping my fingers from making visible strangling motions, I grabbed the ball and lobbed it to Tidus, who was taking his place opposite Wakka as one of the two centers.  
  
So the one dark-skinned guy and I were the opposing forwards, Wakka and Tidus were the centers, and the other two guys were guarding the goalkeepers, one of whom was still snarfing down saccharine and the other of whom was probably plotting my death.  
  
The blitz-off went to Wakka. Tidus and I converged on him, but as I got close, someone slammed into my back. I went sprawling, trying to grab onto something, and ended up flailing near the bottom of the sphere before I calmed down.  
  
"Jassu, what was that for?" Tidus demanded. "She didn't even have the ball."  
  
I looked up to see one of the guards smiling smugly. "You were all crowded there, it was hard to see who had the ball, ya?" He looked to the others for agreement. They nodded, snickering.  
  
"Okay, well, it wasn't her," explained Tidus. They didn't care; they were still laughing their asses off. "You okay?" he asked me.  
  
"I'm a blitzer, ain't I?" I replied. "Let's go."  
  
Wakka went back to his straight shot down center sphere. Tidus sacked him with a well- placed tackle and kept going towards Datto's goal. He tried to pass the ball to me, but the other guard--who I was pretty sure was supposed to be on my side--intercepted it and took it the other way.  
  
And so it went for three long, excruciating hours. I only got the ball once or twice, and whenever I did, one of the guys would snatch it from me. A couple times they threw it directly at me and sat through Wakka's repeated lecture on passing ("You guys never had trouble with this before," he said, totally bewildered). Tidus and Wakka tried to shut them up, but they weren't about to listen. And every time one of them grabbed the ball, he'd hiss, "Why don't you go back to your dolls, little girl?"  
  
By the end, I was not only discouraged as hell, I was starting to hurt like it too. They ushered me out of the sphere before everyone else, with a taunting "Ladies first," and as I left, I felt the ball hit me again.  
  
*****  
  
I literally ran back to the locker room, turned the shower water on until it was nearly scalding, and stepped in with my uniform still on. Underneath the stream of heat, I peeled off the dripping, sweaty clothes, gloves, and boots, and piled them neatly next to the shower with my goggles on top. Then I grabbed a towel off the rack, folded it over the nearest bench, and put my head back under the water.  
  
For fifteen minutes I was conscious of nothing in the world besides the feel of that water on my skin and how good it felt to run even the locker room's cheap shampoo through my hair. This was probably a bad thing, because when I reached out of the shower to get my stuff, I found the towel right where I'd left it, but my clothes were gone.  
  
"Okay," I figured, hoping against hope, "Maybe someone put them in a locker for me. No biggie. I bet they're all gone by now anyway." So I just wrapped the towel around myself and stepped out of the showers and into the main locker room.  
  
"Hey," I called, "has anyone seen my--" And then I stopped dead.  
  
All five of the original Aurochs were sitting calmly on the benches, watching me.  
  
"You know," Datto said after a moment of silence, "We have a time limit on showers. The hot water supply here is very short."  
  
"And we use that water based on senority," added Letty. "That means little princesses go last."  
  
"Look, I'm sorry," I told them. "I didn't know that. I just figured we'd all just get showered and changed and get outta here. The practice was a bitch, you know?"  
  
"Speaking of bitches," Jassu smirked, "you know what happens to them around here?"  
  
"What?" I asked.  
  
Botta smiled. "Since they're the reason we men can't use the showers, we like a little something as payment." He held up the still-glistening red material of my uniform.  
  
I clenched the towel tighter around my body and stepped very close to him, staring into his eyes with raw fury. In the low, dangerous voice that everyone back Home knows you don't mess with, I spat, "Give. That. Back."  
  
He was still smiling, like a house cat that's eaten a bird. Then he stopped cold and did a double take.  
  
"Hey, Keepa," he said. "Come look at this."  
  
Keepa had a bag of cheez puffs in his hand. "What?" he asked through a mouthful of orange glop.  
  
"Check out the chick's eyes," Botta said.  
  
It was then that I realized my mistake. It was the first time any of them had seen me without my goggles on.  
  
Keepa leaned in to stare at me, and all the color drained from his chubby face.  
  
"They're green," he announced.  
  
Instantly the others had gathered around to look. "You know what this means?" Datto grinned after a moment. "It means she's an Al Bhed!"  
  
Then I made another stupid mistake. "Yeah, so I'm Al Bhed. So what? I'd rather have blonde hair and green eyes than be a sexist island hick."  
  
They all paused while Datto smiled at me very widely. Then he opened his mouth and yelled, "Wakka! That new player of yours is an Al Bhed!"  
  
Instantly the door to the back room flew open, and I saw Tidus and Wakka sitting at a conference table. They must have been having the captain's strategy meeting. Wakka was already standing. "What are you talking about?" he demanded.  
  
"Take a look! She's got green eyes!" Letty told him gleefully.  
  
Wakka pushed through the Aurochs and stared at my face. I met his gaze angrily, not sure why my race was suddenly so important. It wasn't until I saw his face flush red that I realized what the problem with being Al Bhed must be.  
  
"Why didn't you tell me she was an Al Bhed?!" he shouted at Tidus.  
  
"Look, Wakka," Tidus said, coming out of the office and straight up to the redhead. "You saw that Nap Shot 3. She's untouchable. You know it as well as I do. And it's not true that all Al Bhed are untrustworthy. Look at Rik--" He stopped dead.  
  
Wakka yelled like a little kid, "Them and their stupid machina! I'm telling you now, I'm not letting any Al Bhed on this team, now or ever!"  
  
"Well, I am." There was anger in Tidus' blue eyes now. "Wakka, you're retired, and until we find a new captain, I am officially in charge of this team. And I say Linna's going to play in this tournament. If she doesn't prove herself, then we'll talk."  
  
"Yeah, well, I'll see you in three days, then," Wakka snapped, and he spun on his heel and walked out.  
  
Tidus turned the baby blues on the Aurochs now. "All right," he said calmly, "Why are you holding her uniform?"  
  
"I was--gonna wash it for her," choked Botta.  
  
"The arena has washing machines for that," Tidus told him, snatching the uniform back and handing it to me. "Get dressed," he told me, "and I'll walk you to your hotel."  
  
My face still burning, I took my clothes from him and slunk back toward the showers. 


	4. Super Goalie

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
*returns from chasing Auron-chan in the previous chapter's disclaimer* I'm kinda tired. No one's allowed to sue me until I get my breath back.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 4: Super Goalie  
  
**********  
  
As soon as the door to the locker room slammed shut behind us, I exploded. "Those jerks!" I yelled, banging a fist on the wall. "How can you deal with them?!"  
  
"I've never seen them like this before," Tidus admitted as he led me down the hallway toward the lobby. "I don't really know them all that well. The first time I ever played with them was the last tournament."  
  
"Yeah?" I asked. "So I guess you really aren't from around here."  
  
He hesitated, then changed the subject back. "Anyway, don't worry about them. I'll take care of them."  
  
"What's Wakka's problem with Al Bhed?"  
  
Tidus shook his head. "His brother went off to fight Sin, but he used an Al Bhed machina instead of the sword Wakka gave him. Wakka's always believed that the Al Bhed were the reason his brother died."  
  
"That's really stupid," I burst out. "Sin attacks Al Bhed just like everyone else."  
  
He shrugged. "I never said it was rational. Follow me--we're gonna go through the crowd again." I kept close behind him as he led the way through the jam-packed street to the massive hotel right across from the stadium. Inside, he went to the elevator pad, motioned for me to follow, and took it up to the twentieth story. Then he walked down the hallway, dug a key out of the pocket in his sleeve, and unlocked one of the doors.  
  
"We're sharing this floor with the Guado Glories," he said, "but you have your own room. Take a look." He stepped in and moved aside so I could enter.  
  
I walked into the room and looked around. The room had its own bath, a huge fluffy bed, and a private balcony. I ran out and got my first eyeful--an incredible bird's-eye view of the Luca Stadium.  
  
I think I gasped, because Tidus started laughing. "I did that my first time too," he chuckled. "Well, anyway, I think I'd better go talk to Yuna and the others. Get some rest--we're playing the Glories tomorrow morning." He turned to go.  
  
"Wait up," I asked him. He stopped. "About what you said to Wakka..."  
  
"What about it?" he replied.  
  
"That I have to prove myself?"  
  
He looked me straight in the eyes. "It's true. Wakka and the others won't accept you unless you prove you deserve respect. I hate to say it, but you're gonna have to work twice as hard as any of them to earn it. And if you can't..." Here he looked away. "...well, forget that, you're going to!"  
  
"You think so, huh?" I asked.  
  
He gave me a grin and did the blitzer's salute again. "Trust me, Linna, I know so!" And with that, he was gone.  
  
I closed the door behind him and turned back into the room. The minibar looked inviting, so I grabbed the first thing I found--some kind of sports drink in a strange green bottle--and flopped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.  
  
*****  
  
I guess it was around midnight when I finally gave up on trying to sleep and got up to drag my sorry carcass out to the balcony. There were two chairs and a glass table. I sighed, sunk into one of the chairs, and put my head down on the table.  
  
I don't cry. Really, I don't. I'm generally a pretty tough person. But after a few minutes of staring at those blinding lights and rememebering the humiliation of standing in front of the entire team in a towel as the bigoted jerks made fun of my eyes, I was ready to spill tears of rage all over the whole damn city.  
  
"Are you all right?" a voice called.  
  
I was getting really sick of all the voices calling me from behind. I looked up to tell the voice off and saw a woman, probably about my age, standing on the next balcony. She was dressed in those dorky pinkish-purple robes of the Crusaders.  
  
"Who are you?" I demanded.  
  
"I am Miyu. I am the goalkeeper of the Guado Glories." She bowed, the standard blitzer's salute/praise be to Yevon stance.  
  
"Don't do that," I said, thinking about Crusaderism. "I'm an Al Bhed."  
  
"I intend only to wish you greetings," she apologized. "You will see this gesture with frequency during the tournament."  
  
I gave in and leaned my chin in my hands. "Why are you playing for the Glories? You're not a Guado."  
  
She shrugged, elegantly. "I am a free agent, hired for the duration of the tournament. As, I presume, are you. May I ask your name?"  
  
"It's Linna," I answered. "I'm the new forward for the Aurochs."  
  
"Is that so?" She was interested now. "This is your first Yevon cup?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Are you nervous?"  
  
I dragged the chair over nearer to the railing so I could talk to her more easily. "More like pissed off, actually," I replied. "I know I can do it, but the team doesn't even want me there. And if I don't ace the first game, the captains're gonna send me packing."  
  
"Who are the captains?"  
  
"They're like co-captains, I think, even though one's retired," I told her. "But their names are Tidus and Wakka."  
  
"Oh, I am familiar with Wakka. I am impressed that you have made it this far, considering his...prejudices." She coughed delicately.  
  
"Yeah, the guy's a real bigot, huh? I hate creeps like that." Crack. Crack. Too late, I realized I'd been cracking my knuckles. Mom always used to hate it when I did that, which was whenever I got angry.  
  
"His brother was killed in a machina," Miyu explained, echoing what Tidus had told me. "Wakka has never recovered. But I know this: he will not pass up talent. You have only to prove yourself and you will have secured a place on the team."  
  
"Yeah, but how the hell am I supposed to prove myself to this crowd?" I asked.  
  
She looked at me. "Meet me at the sphere in ten minutes and I'll show you." 


	5. Volley Shot

Disclaimer: Yes! I own FFX AND Spira AND blitzball! I also own Tidus, and I keep him chained to my bed. ^____^  
  
Haha, scary lawyer-types! That was just a joke to see if you were paying attention! Here's the actual disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 5: Volley Shot  
  
**********  
  
I slipped into a fresh uniform--one of the perks of being a blitzer in the big leagues was that all my luggage was already unpacked for me by the time I got to the room--grabbed a ball, and headed down the stairs and across the street to the stadium. By now I already knew my way to the sphere entrance.  
  
I found Miyu waiting there for me. "I will show you a secret," she said. "It is possible to enter the sphere when there is nothing going on."  
  
"Don't they lock it?" I asked.  
  
She smiled. "Don't you pick locks?"  
  
I glared at her. "We were just talking about how Wakka makes snap judgements about Al Bhed and you assume I can pick locks?"  
  
"My apologies," she murmured.  
  
"That said, it turns out I can," I told her by way of acceptance. But when I touched the door, it swung open.  
  
Miyu and I looked at each other. "Perhaps it is being cleaned?" she suggested.  
  
"Only one way to find out." I shut the door, put my legs in the water, and swam straight out into the sphere.  
  
"C'mon, Miyu, it's great!" I called cheerfully as soon as my limbs began to warm up.  
  
She laughed. "You look as if you've never played here before!"  
  
"Actually, I've never even been to Luca," I told her.  
  
"In that case--"  
  
"Who are you?!"  
  
We both whirled at the same time. There, blitzball in hand, was floating one of the living legends of blitz. We both knew that red hair and that wide, confident mouth that made blitz fans across Spira swoon. This guy was undoubtedly Bickson, the notoriously arrogant star forward of the Luca Goers.  
  
Of course, this was not what I was thinking at the time. What I was thinking at the time was more like "Shitshitshitshitshit we're gonna get in trouble now..."  
  
"Who are you?" he demanded. "What are you doing here?"  
  
My brain went into overdrive mode as I desperately tried to come up with a cover story, preferably involving terminally ill grandmothers and poor, hard-working sphere cleaners, but by the time I had come up with an excuse for our blatant lack of cleaning supplies, Miyu had already replied imperiously, "We should ask the same of you!"  
  
"I'm practicing," he answered her. "I'm the captain of the Goers."  
  
"And they give you unlimited access to the sphere in the dead of night?" I wanted to know.  
  
His confidence cracked for the first time. "Actually...no. I nearly got suspended last season for coming down here to practice all the time."  
  
"Yeah, well, we're here to practice too," I informed him.  
  
He sighed. "If I chase you out, you'll just go tell Biggs and Wedge I'm in here, won't you?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The guards. They're blitzers, too, but it doesn't make them any easier to deal with."  
  
I thought fast. "Let's make a deal. You let us stay in here and practice, and we won't rat on you, got it?"  
  
"Fair enough." He swum over and stuck out a hand. "I'm Bickson. I'm the captain and right guard for the Luca Goers."  
  
"You're a guard?" I stopped to look at him in mid-shake. "But you're famous as a foward."  
  
He looked away. "Yeah, well, after last season, the team's been having trouble. One of our guards got injured and we couldn't find a replacement. So we had to hire a forward and I had to take over the guard spot for part of the tournament until Balgerda recovers." He made a show of posing. "What can I say? I'm versatile."  
  
"Apparently," I replied.  
  
He shoved it off. "Ehh, enough about me. You guys never told me your names."  
  
"I am Miyu, of the Guado Glories," Miyu introduced herself with the same bow. "It is both an honor and a pleasure."  
  
He bowed back. "On the contrary. The pleasure's all mine." Then he turned those spotlight eyes on me. "Mind if I ask your name?"  
  
"Linna."  
  
"I notice you neglect to mention the team," he said. "Come on, cough it up."  
  
"The Aurochs," I replied, and I could hear the undertone of steel running through the bottom of my voice, daring him to say anything.  
  
Bickson whistled. "The Aurochs are recruiting, huh? Well, this'll be interesting. You ever played in the Yevon Cup before?"  
  
I snorted. "Yeah, right. I'm strictly a street blitzer."  
  
"Stop saying that like you're ashamed of it," he grinned. "I was a street rat too. Most of us were."  
  
"Power to the punks, right?" I gave him a high-five.  
  
"Exactly." He turned to Miyu. "Mind taking the goal?" To me, he said, "Let's see what ya got, street rat."  
  
*****  
  
I spun the ball on my finger and lowered it to kick. "That your shot?" he interrupted.  
  
I glared at him. "Just a warm-up." Clenching my teeth, I kicked the ball as hard as I could straight toward the backboard.  
  
Almost lazily, he reached out and caught it. "Warm up before you get in the sphere."  
  
"Ynnukyhd bnelg," I laughed. "So the stories are all true, huh?"  
  
"Including the one where I broke Bobba's nose with Venom Shot?" It was his turn to snort. "Pfah, reporters. You wanna learn how to shoot or not?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Lemme show you the Bickson Shot." He threw me the ball again and lined himself up next to me. "Drop your arm. You want an angle on it. Like this. Right away you want to focus on the goal. Are you watching?"  
  
What I was watching was Miyu raising one gloved hand to her mouth in an effort to stifle her laughter, but I mimicked him anyway. "Come on!" he said. "I never said you had to do this forever, just fake it if you want me to go away." I tried. "Pay attention!"  
  
"Dammit, what do I look like I'm doing?!" I snapped.  
  
"You look like you're drunk. Here." And then he was behind me, leaning over my shoulder, with his arms over mine. "Like that. Now just kick it."  
  
I reared back and slammed it toward the goal. Miyu, who had managed to control her stupid snickering self, sailed for it and caught it.  
  
Bickson, who for his part was still draped around me, laughed. "Not bad. You didn't even kick me." He backed off and got a few feet away to look at me. "Not half bad for a rookie. You've got good form."  
  
"First good thing you've said all night," I commented.  
  
He shrugged. "Yeah, well, I'm not a total jerk."  
  
"Just 85%."  
  
"Exactly." He clapped his hands once to Miyu, who threw him the ball. "Now do it again."  
  
*****  
  
"Syopa E cruimt ku pylg du cdnaad nyddehk," I sighed to myself two hours later.  
  
Bickson tossed the ball at me. It hit my stomach lightly and drifted slowly sideways. I was still floating like a dead fish to the top of the sphere.  
  
"Come on, naptime's over, get up," Bickson ordered.  
  
"Shut up," I snapped. "I've been here two hours and I haven't made a single shot."  
  
"Well, you're not going to if you keep doing that. Even if you do play for the Aurochs, you're in the big leagues now. Let's see some proof that you deserve to be here."  
  
"I don't," I told him. "I was starving outside a temple when they signed me."  
  
"Why'd they sign you? I know Wakka. He wouldn't mess with the lineup just for a pretty face. That lunk wouldn't even give you points for all the witty repartee you've been treating me to for the last two hours."  
  
I opened one weary eye to look at him through the fog on my goggles. "They signed me because I know Nap Shot 3."  
  
There was dead silence for a moment as both players struggled to close their mouths, which were hanging open. Finally Bickson said, very quietly, "Show me."  
  
I sat up and grabbed the ball. "You gonna block, Mr. Hotshot Guard?" I asked.  
  
He nodded and got into position in front of the goal, watching me intently. Miyu fell into her goalie's stance. I lowered the ball, closed my eyes, and shot hard to the right side of the goal.  
  
Bickson leapt for it, but his fingers fell a few inches short. The ball hurtled on toward Miyu, spinning out of control. She lunged, but the second her fingertips touched it, she was on her back, out cold. The ball had lost most of its momentum, but it wandered past the sleeping Crusader and tapped the backboard.  
  
Bickson looked at me. I looked at Miyu, who was still holding her breath. Miyu didn't look at anything except the inside of her eyelids. I wondered if she dreamed in color.  
  
"Where in Spira did you learn Nap Shot 3?" Bickson asked.  
  
"Trade secret," I lied.  
  
He didn't respond for a second or two, and then he said, "You weren't shooting the way I taught you."  
  
"Nah." I shook my head. "Thanks for the help, but when I'm standing way up there--" I pointed to the balcony "--with my Yevon Cup, I don't want anyone to say I only got it because of you. I'm gonna do this on my own."  
  
He looked at me, and then, suddenly, he did the blitzer's bow. "You're going to think I'm just saying this, but I like you. You and I are a lot alike."  
  
"Comforting thought. I, too, could end up an overbearing, loudmouthed jerk," I replied.  
  
"Yeah, but you'll be an overbearing, loudmouthed jerk who *wins*." He crossed his arms. "I'm still not sure about that Yevon Cup scene, though. If you want to win, you're going to have to get through me."  
  
"Bring it on, lrisb," I smirked. "I'll see you in the finals."  
  
He looked downcast. "Your coach said that last year, too." Then he shook it off. "Now let's wake your friend up and get out of here. You've got to be back here in six hours for the first round."  
  
*****  
  
"Bickson is a rather strange individual," Miyu commented as we rode up together on the elevator.  
  
"I was thinking more along the lines of 'arrogant, self-centered snob,'" I replied.  
  
"Funny you should say that; you seemed quite taken with him." She smiled her mysterious smile.  
  
"You're an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a soft taco shell," I spat. "What the hell do you mean, 'you seemed quite taken with him'?"  
  
"I have a feeling we will be practicing after dark with astounding frequency," she answered serenely as the elevator stopped on our floor. "Good night, Linna. Best of luck in tomorrow's game."  
  
"Hey, wait a minute! What are you--come back here!" She was already halfway in the door. "Yeah, well...good luck to you too."  
  
She smiled again and bowed, then shut the door behind her. I shoved the sphere through the slot in my own door, picked it up on the other side to lock myself in, and went to the sliding glass door for one more look at the lights of Spira.  
  
The communication sphere in my room flashed, and I pressed a button on the base to take the call. "Yo, this is Linna."  
  
"Hey, Linna, go on the balcony and look down."  
  
"Who is this?" I demanded.  
  
"Just an overbearing, loudmouthed jerk."  
  
I rolled my eyes, stepped out the door, and looked downward.  
  
Far below, a tiny figure was waving. I used my goggles to zoom in and saw Bickson. When I waved back, he bowed, blitz-style.  
  
"Good luck tomorrow!" his voice said from the sphere inside.  
  
And then he was gone. I went in, shut the sphere off, and flopped on my bed. This time, I had no trouble getting to sleep.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Ynnukyhd bnelg." - "Arrogant prick."  
  
"Syopa E cruimt ku pylg du cdnaad nyddehk." - "Maybe I should go back to street ratting."  
  
lrisb - chump 


	6. Regen

Disclaimer: Yes! I own FFX AND Spira AND blitzball! I also own Tidus, and I keep him chained to my bed. ^____^  
  
Haha, scary lawyer-types! That was just a joke to see if you were paying attention! Here's the actual disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 6: Regen  
  
**********  
  
Brrrrring. Brrrrrrrring.  
  
"Crid ib!" I moaned. When it didn't, I yelled in English, "I said shut up already!" It kept brrrrringing. "Tysh oui, Naaga, oui'na kuhhy byo vun drec uha!" I shouted finally, and heaved my carcass out of bed.  
  
About the time my feet hit the floor I realized that a) Naaga was not around to hear me curse her, b) The brrringing was coming from my alarm clock, which happened to be located in the middle of a hotel room in Luca, and c) Unless I got up right then, I was going to be pondering the snow at Macalania Temple again very quickly.  
  
This established, I rubbed the gunk outta my eyes, groped on the bedside table for my goggles, and headed for the bathroom with my uniform and a toothbrush. I was yanking a brush through the snarls in my short, tangled hair when I started wondering whether Naaga was waking up to the sound of a ringing sphere, too, and whether she'd let it ring without answering like I'd taught her to. I wanted to ask Aniki whether someone was taking care of her like he'd promised me. I really wanted to know where my money was.  
  
These thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Yeah?" I called.  
  
"Good morning!" Miyu replied cheerfully. "Are you ready to eat?"  
  
I gave up on the brush and ran my fingers through my hair. "Hang on a sec," I told Miyu through the door as I put on my goggles, grabbed my key sphere and my duffel bag, and burst out into the hallway.  
  
"Okay," I said, still futzing with the goggle strap, "Let's go stuff our faces."  
  
"This way. We eat with the teams in the arena complex," she told me.  
  
"How the hell do you know that? Nobody bothered to tell me," I grumped. I was still a little grouchy. I'm not even close to being a morning person.  
  
"It was on the information sheet outside your door. The one you failed to notice in your haste," laughed the goalie. I cracked my knuckles. She handed me a piece of paper and swooped through the crowds ahead of me toward the stadium. I followed, trying to read and avoid getting killed simultaneously.  
  
By the time I caught up with her in the lobby, I was looking at the game listings. "Hey, we're playing the Glories today!" I read. "You see this, Miyu?"  
  
She nodded. "Yes. In a matter of approximately two hours, perhaps less, you will be attempting to score and I will be attempting to prevent you. Only time can tell who will prevail."  
  
I personally wasn't holding out all that much hope for the street rats, so I kept my mouth shut and changed the subject. "So," I said brightly, "Where's breakfast?"  
  
*****  
  
She took me up the stairs to the private dining room behind the second-floor lobby, where a buffet was set up. The joint was already pretty crowded, and it looked like someone had painted the whole room normally and then dropped blobs of color in different corners. The teams looked like they'd each claimed their own tables, and I could see the Goers in blue, the Guado in their muted earth tones, the Kilika players in green, and so forth on down to the Hick Squad, decked out in a fairly hideous shade of yellow. Miyu, Tidus, and I were the only ones who stood out in our nonregulation uniforms.  
  
"Finally, food. I'm starving." I grabbed a plate and headed toward the buffet. When I got close enough to see what was on the table, though, I stopped dead. "Whole-bran oat muffins? Fibrous toast? Granola squares? What the hell is this stuff?"  
  
"Energy food," someone said behind me. I turned to see the grizzled arm of Vuroja reach out to load a muffin onto his plate. Vuroja, known half-respectfully and half-jokingly as "the Old Man," was, at 57 years, the oldest player in the history of the league. He was also sometimes called "the Muscle," because he still had them. I started praying that if we made it past the Glories, we wouldn't have to deal with the Kilika Beasts. I didn't want to try to tackle a center like that.  
  
"You'll get used to it," he was saying when I tuned back in. "Until then..." Something poked me in the side, under the table. I looked down to see a candy bar in the Old Man's hand. He motioned for me to take it.  
  
"Thanks," I hissed.  
  
"Don't you worry about it," he whispered back. "It's a tradition around here. But you should eat some of this anyway." With that, he turned and headed back to the Beasts' table.  
  
I pocketed the chocolate and grabbed a granola bar and some fruit. When I walked toward the Aurochs, however, Letty leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the only empty seat.  
  
"Oh, sorry, was that yours?" he asked. "I'm saving it for someone."  
  
"Well, well, the little princess decided to show up," Datto chimed in. "You look a little groggy, girlfriend. Time to rise and shine."  
  
"What are you still doing here, mucan?" I asked him. "You're not playing. Run back home to your mommy or something."  
  
"Ooh, she's a little grouchy. Did you have a late night?" he taunted me, taking a long, slow bite of his toast. "I hope the Goers paid you well."  
  
"That's enough!" Tidus snapped, slapping a hand on the table. "Letty, get your feet off that chair. We've got a game in less than two hours. If we lose in the first round because our forward passed out from lack of food, we'll know who to blame." He cast a helpless glance at Wakka, who was glaring out the window.  
  
Letty griped, but he put his feet back on the floor and let me sit down. We ate breakfast in stony silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I looked at the Glories. Miyu looked really out of place with her oversized pink uniform, but she was laughing quietly at something Nav had said. Over at the Goers' table, Bickson and Graav were in an animated conversation that had the rest of the team roaring. It was then that I noticed the extra player--Balgerda was dressed in the team's blue sweats, not the uniform, and she had her leg propped up on a chair. The girl wearing the injured guard's uniform had close-cropped brown hair, and she was sitting very close to the captain, looking totally rapt. This had to be the replacement forward.  
  
So how were she and Miyu able to get along, even if they weren't from the same town or even the same race as the rest of the team? In fact, every team in the room seemed to be enjoying itself except the Aurochs. Was it just that I was Al Bhed?  
  
Thinking this made me look over at the Psyches with a twinge of envy. As far back as I could remember, I'd dreamed about playing for the Psyches. I knew the stats of every damn player on the team, right down to their regulated numbers of experience points used by the Spira Blitzball Association to designate a player's skill level. I imagined myself sitting at that table dressed in the brown and red Psyches uniform, trading tips with Blappa and Berrik, whispering secrets to Lakkam--well, maybe not Lakkam; she seemed like the Rikku type, but at least Judda--telling in-jokes about Rin's skills as a blitzer that would make them all fall over laughing.  
  
What I got was hostile silence and six ice-cold glares until Wakka finally said, "All right, team, time to start getting warmed up." The other seven of us stretched and pushed back our chairs. As we headed down the stairs to our locker room, I snuck the rest of the chocolate bar the Old Man had given me into my mouth and looked out at the sphere. It was going to be a long day.  
  
*****  
  
"Would you quit that?!" I finally barked at Keepa, who was sitting on my feet. "You want to explain to me how the hell I'm supposed to do situps when you keep moving around to get food out of your pocket?"  
  
He shifted again to put the rest of the power bar back in his back pocket. The pressure on my feet gone, I fell over again. He didn't exactly look overcome with guilt. "If you don't like it," he told me, still chewing, "you can always trade with Datto."  
  
"Ur, peda sa, yccruma," I sighed, rolling over to do the pushups.  
  
"Ooh, look, the little princess is warming up just like the big guys. How cute," snarled Botta. I gave up trying to control my temper and did the rest of the pushups with one arm while holding the other straight out to flick him off two inches from his nose. He grunted. I stood up and brushed myself off.  
  
"Everyone done?" Wakka asked. He stood up too. The other team members--most of whom had definitely NOT done the requisite 35 pushups--also dragged themselves to their feet.  
  
"Okay, the game starts in ten minutes. We've gotta be out in the sphere in five," he continued. "Time to huddle!"  
  
We gathered around. Tidus said, "I know you guys are a little nervous about this one, since we've made some changes to our lineup." They all looked at me. "But after last year's tournament, we've shown everyone out there that we're the best team here. Let's remind them who the real blitz aces are around here!"  
  
"Yeah!" the team yelled in unison, pumping their fists.  
  
"Let's show those Glories what we're made of!" Wakka shouted.  
  
"Yeah!" echoed the team.  
  
"Let's get out there and win!" Tidus hollered at the top of his lungs.  
  
"Yeah!" they bellowed, and this time I joined in. My glove hit theirs in the middle of the circle, we all cheered, and then we were running as fast as we could out of the locker room and towards the sphere. My feet and my heart were pounding to the rhythm of the adrenaline. It was time to start proving myself.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Crid ib!" - "Shut up!"  
  
"Tysh oui, Naaga, oui'na kuhhy byo vun drec uha!" - "Damn you, Naaga, you're gonna pay for this one!"  
  
mucan - loser  
  
"Ur, peda sa, yccruma." - "Oh, bite me, asshole." 


	7. Nap Shot

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Sue me and I'll get Linna to Nap Shot you. -_-;; But somehow I don't think that would scare Square too much...  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 7: Nap Shot  
  
**********  
  
The sunlight sparkling on the water in the sphere was almost blinding as we reached the entrance at the base of the arena. All the way across, I could see the Glories through the water, waiting just out of sight of the crowd.  
  
Wakka and Datto were sitting on the bench back in the locker room. The rest of us were standing around inside the entrance to the sphere pool with various levels of impatience, listening to the booming voices of the talking heads over the intercom:  
  
"This certainly is an exciting opening match, right, Bobba?"  
  
"That's right, Jimma. The first game of the Yevon Cup tournament will have all you sportsfans out there on the edges of your seats. Today, we have the Guado Glories against last season's Cinderella story, the Besaid Aurochs!"  
  
"So was last year's tournament a fluke, Bobba, or do you think the Aurochs can really pull the championship off two years in a row?"  
  
"That's what we'd all like to know, Jimma, and I think the Aurochs've been thinking about it as well. Take a look at the starting lineup. They've replaced retired coach Wakka as center with Tidus, the rookie we saw in the first half of last year's championship game. And in left forward, we have a complete newcomer--someone called 'Linna'."  
  
"And on the intercom," I hissed, "we have Bobba and Jimma, who are known for their Venom Shot and their incredible ability to talk without brains. This season, they're expected to last two games, or until they piss me off--"  
  
"Hssh!" ordered Keepa. "You should listen to this stuff. Sometimes it's good to know."  
  
"Any idea how these two will hold up against the experienced Glories?" Jimma was saying.  
  
"They'll hold up just fine, Jimma," Tidus muttered through his teeth.  
  
"I think it's time to find out," Bobba replied. "Without any further ado, let's welcome the pride of Guadosalam, the Guado Glories!"  
  
The crowd cheered. The Glories swam out into the sphere, acknowledging the fans, and came into the center of the arena to meet us. I could see the bright pink-purple of Miyu's uniform in the back of the group.  
  
Tidus grinned at me. "Tear 'em apart, Linna." With that, he sat down on the edge of the pool, inhaled, and slipped silently in. Letty and I exchanged glances, and he and I came next. I took a deep breath, sealing the air inside my lungs, and dove in headfirst without making a splash. I could hear Botta and Jassu behind me, and finally came Keepa.  
  
"And now, Besaid's own, the defending champions, the Besaid Aurochs!" Bobba screamed.  
  
We surged forward through the tunnel into the sphere, and the sunlight and the cheers hit me at the same time. Through the water, I could hear the crowd yelling.  
  
"Praise be to Yevon," Jassu whispered. "The whole island's here."  
  
The Glories were waiting in the center. We all bowed, formally. As Tidus shook hands with their center, I sized up the guards. They were even smaller than I was, but I knew they wouldn't be much of a problem. I clenched my fist inside my Golden Arm. With a team as notorious for its constant passing as the Glories, I'd have my hands full just blocking.  
  
We separated and fell into formation, and I took my place on the far side of the sphere. I glanced at Miyu once, but her eyes were as hidden from the gaze of the outside world as mine, with her forbidding faceguard. Her face, though, was turned toward the two centers.  
  
I closed my eyes for a split second and prepared myself, and then I heard the announcer's voice. "Blitzoff!"  
  
*****  
  
Tidus and Nav both jumped for the ball as soon as it shot up out of the base of the sphere. The Guado center was faster, and he snatched the blitzball and streaked toward Keepa. Instantly, Tidus and Letty were on him. Panicking, he threw a hasty pass toward Giera. Tidus couldn't grab it, but Letty managed to get a hand on it, sending it spinning in the direction of the forward. Giera leapt too quickly and fumbled, but Botta shot up to grab the ball and started running it up the side of the sphere toward me.  
  
Zazi tried to stop him, but Botta took the tackle like it was a spring breeze and kept going. When he got halfway into my side of the court, he caught my eye and lobbed it straight at me with a steady arm. I leapt and caught it easily, but I was almost at the goal when I was surrounded by Pah and Nav.  
  
I braced myself for Pah's tackle, but I knew I'd be too off-balance to take Nav's, too. I also knew I couldn't get a pass through, so I squeezed a shot off under Nav's arm. The center kicked out and managed to take a little of the momentum off it, but the ball was still going on its course to Miyu's far left.  
  
I was using Spin Ball, so Miyu was taking a risk when she kicked off the right side of the goal and leapt for it. I cursed under my breath as her hand connected with the ball and sent it back out into play. Zazi and Botta were still there, and they both made a grab for it. Zazi managed to get hold of it and almost immediately tried to pass it off. Botta was no match for Pass Boy and watched as the ball hurtled straight into the waiting hands of Auda. Who, of course, immediately passed it to Pah. Who passed it to Nav.  
  
I was ready to take on the whole team by the time Nav finally started moving. Luckily, Tidus and Jassu were on him right away, and Botta had closed in before he finally had the sense to go for a pass.  
  
Jassu and Botta slammed it into the ground, and Tidus took hold of the now-drifting ball and shot toward Miyu. I saw her mouth open in a wide O as she hurled herself towards it, but she fell just a few inches too short.  
  
"And the first goal of the tournament!" screamed Jimma over the sound of the horn blaring. "Aurochs 1, Glories 0!"  
  
*****  
  
"Wooooo!" Tidus swung on the handle of the locker room door. "She never had a chance! Just--boom!"  
  
"Not bad, boss, not bad," I agreed as I followed him into the locker room. "If we can just keep them from scoring in the second half, this match'll be in the bag."  
  
"Why just keep them from scoring?" he asked, the fire in his blue eyes. "Nap Shot her, Linna. Shut those morons in the anchor booth up. You can do it."  
  
"Hey, Cap'n Wakka, did you see that shot?" demanded Letty as he stormed in, the rest of the team following right behind. "Pow! Straight into the goal!" It was the kind of shot that can only be described by comic-book sound effects.  
  
"Nice one, ya?" Wakka clapped the blond on the back. "I can see it now. That cup's gonna have our name on it again!"  
  
Keepa started passing out paper cups from the water cooler. "Drink up," he advised. "We're going to come on even stronger in the second half." As he handed me my cup, something like the ghost of a smile flickered across his face, and I found myself half-smiling back.  
  
On impulse--must've been that crazy adrenaline again--I jumped up on the bench and yelled, "A toast to victory!"  
  
"To victory!" echoed the Aurochs, swigging down their water as we all surged back out for the second half.  
  
*****  
  
This time, the blitzoff went to Tidus, who motored down the center of the sphere like a machina tank, deflecting tackles. He was already deep into our offensive territory when he faked a pass to Letty and drove hard to the right while the entire Guado team sprang towards Letty. While they were all distracted, the center passed me the ball, but by that time they'd figured it out and headed my way. They were faster than I was, and I'd just gotten close to the goal when Auda, Pah, and Nav all assaulted me at once.  
  
"Linna," Tidus mouthed from over Nav's shoulder, "Nap Shot 3!"  
  
I nodded once and steeled myself for Auda's tackle. She hit me hard enough with a Venom to send me reeling, and I spun wildly for a couple seconds, choking, as the green cloud formed around my mouth. I had to shoot right away, or I wouldn't get a chance to do it.  
  
If I wanted to score, I only had one option, and it was pretty risky. Luckily, I've always been a gambler, so I charged up Nap Shot 3 and sent it sailing straight at Miyu's stomach.  
  
Pah and Nav jumped, but they couldn't even touch it. The blitzball was just flying at the goal. In the split second before it impacted, Miyu's head snapped towards me, and then she was hanging limply in front of the goal, the ball rebounding back towards me.  
  
I braced myself and volley shot.  
  
My foot connected with the ball at just the right angle. The backboard rocked with the impact of the shot. There was nothing anyone could do. It was in. 


	8. Gamble

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Oh, hey, by the way, Naaga? I own her. If you got the Slayers reference (Linna and Naaga? Okay, fine, it was a stretch), you are ultra-cool.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 8: Gamble  
  
**********  
  
Not to get cliche or anything, but the crowd was going wild. The Besaid fans were on their feet. Only the Guado side of the stadium was silent.  
  
"That was one for the record books, Jimma!" Bobba shouted through the frenzy. "The Aurochs' Linna just performed a never-before-seen combo of Nap Shot 3 and Volley Shot!"  
  
"I think what we've seen today has given us our first indication of the Aurochs' performance this tournament, Bobba," Jimma announced. "Let's see how the Glories recover."  
  
They didn't recover. Although the blitzoff automatically went to Nav, and the Glories had the ball for most of the rest of the second half, Jassu and Botta were on fire now. Giera was really working hard to get a shot in, but our defense eventually gave up on trying to block passes and focused on swatting down the shots as they came in. Letty and I swam in slow circles in our positions--there was no point in getting back there, and with the poison I knew I'd pass out if I got the ball again.  
  
With thirteen seconds left on the clock, Nav threw a desperate pass upsphere to Giera, who shot far to the top of the goal. Tidus and Jassu both grabbed for it. Keepa, who was dancing on breaking regulations by sneaking jellybeans into his mouth at the time, reached up with one hand and batted the ball away from the goal as the clock hit ten minutes.  
  
"Aurochs 2, Glories 0!" Jimma's voice broke through the water. "The first game of the tournament goes to the Besaid Aurochs!"  
  
I think I screamed. The Glories calmly lined up to bow and we filed past to congratulate each other, but when they slunk out of the sphere, we were still there, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd.  
  
When we burst into the locker room, the chaos made the streets of Luca look like the Calm Lands. "A 2-0 shutout!" Letty kept grinning. "That was our best game ever!"  
  
"Yeah, even last year we won the championship game 1-0," Jassu chimed in.  
  
"You guys know what this means, right?" Botta shouted at all of us. "We're in the next round! We could really pull this off, ya?"  
  
"We're going to!" cried Tidus. "We're playing to win!"  
  
In the midst of all the chaos, I plunked myself down on a bench with the first aid kit and chugged down an antidote. The clear liquid burned like fire down my throat, but the air had stopped coming from my mouth in short green puffs and I was starting to feel a lot better.  
  
Wakka got up on the bench and signaled for silence. "I just wanna say," he began, "that that was an amazing game, ya? I'm proud of all of you guys."  
  
"Victory celebration at the Cafe at six tonight!" Keepa cheered, still munching.  
  
After another round or two of self-congratulations, I grabbed my gear and headed out. I still had time to grab a shower back at the hotel--where there was plenty of hot water and a lack of uniform thieves--and some lunch before the next game.  
  
On my way out the door, someone grabbed my arm. "Hey."  
  
I turned to see Datto. "Yeah?" I asked, waiting for either an insult or a punch.  
  
He hesitated. "Even if you can play, I still hate you," he said finally.  
  
I looked at him. "Thanks," I replied, and headed out.  
  
*****  
  
As soon as I left the hallway, I was cornered and blinking at a sphere camera. "Linna!" a man with a microphone was shouting. "That was amazing! Where'd you learn those techniques?"  
  
"How long have you been playing for the Aurochs?"  
  
"How much are you getting paid?"  
  
"Do you have anything to say to your fans?"  
  
"I have fans?" I asked, trying to push my way through the blitz of blitz media and out into the street.  
  
"Everyone's already talking about that play, and when it airs on tonight's news, you're gonna be the hottest property in blitz!" one woman cried eagerly.  
  
"Tell them I accept all donations," I told her. Now I was out in the cover of the street. The cloud of reporters followed me up to the hotel door, where the doorman--who was going to get a VERY large tip when I checked out--let me in and locked the door behind me.  
  
I sighed, hoisted my duffel bag up on my shoulder, and stepped on the elevator pad. It took me a minute to fish the key sphere out of the bottom of the bag and get the door to my suite unlocked. Inside, I dumped my stuff on the bed, took my uniform off and dumped it in the sink to get the chlorine off it, and jumped straight into the shower. When I got out, I turned on the sphere to watch the news while I dried my uniform.  
  
"The first game of the Yevon Cup tournament, which ended an hour ago, was a 2-0 shutout in favor of the Besaid Aurochs," the perky brunette news anchor was saying. "Center Tidus scored in the first half, but the standout performance of the game came from newcomer forward Linna, who wowed the crowd with an incredible combination of Nap Shot 3 and Volley Shot. The captain of the Glories had no comment."  
  
I snapped the news off and put my uniform back on. Downstairs, it looked like most of the paparazzi had drifted away from the hotel entrance, but I didn't feel like taking chances--I was starting to think that just maybe, if we kept winning, getting through the tournament without getting into an all-out brawl with one or all of the Aurochs would be possible, and the way to do it was to make sure I didn't get too friendly with the cameras. I took the back door out of the hotel and found myself in an alley by the kitchens.  
  
The sphere was still jammed with spectators, and I walked toward it, keeping on the side streets as much as possible. I was glad to find out that the route I'd taken brought me straight to dock 1, and I was heading in toward the lobby when I crashed right into someone.  
  
"Cred!" I cursed from my position on the ground. "Fro dra ramm tuach'd yhouha fydlr frana drao'na kuehk ynuiht rana?!"  
  
"Y bnaddo kenm mega oui cruimth'd pa cu jimkyn, Secc Linna," said a very familiar voice from above me, and as the man extended a gloved hand to help me up I realized who it was. That tanned, buff body and the long golden hair should've clued me in right away.  
  
"Oh, damn, Rin, I'm sorry," I sighed. "I'm kinda in a hurry and I've been trying so hard to avoid those idiotic reporters I wasn't watching where I was going."  
  
"Quite all right, Miss Linna," he responded politely. "It is I who should have been watching. And I must congratulate you on your recent success. I was present for your splendid performance this morning."  
  
"Yeah, well, I had a great teacher," I grinned. "When did you get here?"  
  
"Early this morning. I arrived from Home on the submarine."  
  
"From home?" I asked. "Have you seen Naaga? Is she okay?"  
  
"Naaga has been taken in for the duration of your absence by Cid," the travel agent answered.  
  
"Cid?" I stared at him. "Look, Coach, I know he's our leader and all, but no one else would take her in? That son Aniki of his is the wild type and you know what a big crush she has on him. I don't trust him and I don't like his friends."  
  
There was a twinkle in Rin's eye. "Aniki is being kept very busy running the submarine. Furthermore, Cid has always been protective of you and Naaga since...the tragedy." His smile faded for just a moment, then returned. "You have nothing to fear for the well-being of your sister, Miss Linna the Overly Protective."  
  
I acted like I hadn't heard him and asked, "So Aniki's back at home then?"  
  
"Yes, he and the others have returned from their operations at Macalania. They were reprimanded by Cid for their actions. Despite their good intentions, the kidnapping of a summoner is unconscionable--" he coughed, then in a lower voice, "--at least so publicly. He would have preferred they not be so open about it. I trust you were not involved with this affair?"  
  
He was looking down his nose at me. "Not in the slighest," I lied.  
  
"Good," he said. "The next match will commence in an hour. Have you eaten?"  
  
"I had half a candy bar and some of their processed cardboard this morning."  
  
"You will be pleased to learn that lunch is more pleasant. Shall we dine at the cafeteria?" He offered me his elbow.  
  
"You make it sound so cosmopolitan," I snorted, taking his arm.  
  
"A strong suit of mine, I am told." As we headed up the stairs to the cafeteria, he asked, "This is your first tournament. How have you found the experience so far?"  
  
"It ain't exactly all it's cracked up to be," I admitted. "I can't take my goggles off in public. Everyone seems to freak out when they find out I'm Al Bhed." Belatedly, I realized he had his goggles up on his forehead, as usual. Maybe he figured he was already too well-known to bother trying to hide.  
  
"Yes, I wondered about that when you told me you were to participate in the tournament." He got the door for me, and we joined the expanding line of blitzers at the buffet table. "What else?"  
  
"That's the big problem. The guys on the team can be real jerks--yesterday they swiped my clothes while I was in the shower, and they keep calling me a little princess and a ho--but they play okay, so I don't care all that much. I've met a couple people from other teams to practice with, and I can get from the hotel to the arena and back. Bottom line is that I'm doing okay."  
  
"You are doing more than okay, if I'm not mistaken," Rin smiled. We each took a plate off the top of the stack and began filling them with food. He was right, it did get better at lunch time--they still had those disgusting bran-type things, but at least now there was fresh watermelon and some junk food.  
  
I shrugged. "I'd better be. I just know that jerk Wakka's gonna kick me off the team if we don't win the tournament. The Psyches aren't recruiting, Rin. This is my only shot at the big leagues right now."  
  
Rin had found a table by the window and we took our trays over. "If you are truly miserable, Miss Linna," he said, "I could speak to Nimrook. Perhaps the Psyches have a place for a reserve player--"  
  
"Nah, I'll stick it out. The Aurochs've signed me for the tournament, so there's nothing I can do about that. The problem is that even in the stratosphere of blitzball, so to speak, reserve slots pay shit. Here I'm getting 900 gil a game, and that still won't even start to cover the back bills."  
  
"Oh, yes," Rin frowned, "I was to tell you that several bill collectors were somewhat insistent on speaking with you. I have given them the amount they have demanded thus far, but--"  
  
"Dammit, Rin, I'm not a charity case!" I exploded. "We're doing fine, but you know I can't afford to pay you back right now!"  
  
"Then consider it a gift," he cut in smoothly. "I promised your parents I would watch over you and Naaga. You will be back on your feet soon. You are now making a considerable sum at blitzball, and Cid is paying your sister to do maintenance work at Home."  
  
"She has a job now? This all happened in the last two weeks?" I set my hamburger down, miserably. "She's only 16, Rin. She should be in school."  
  
"You were working at a more tender age than 16, Miss Linna, and she is still attending classes."  
  
I wasn't having any of it. "Look, thanks for the news, Rin, but the game'll be starting soon. If I don't go now, I'll be stuck in the nosebleed seats."  
  
He smiled that enigmatic smile of his. "Very well. I will see you in the sphere at 11:00 sharp the night before the championship game. I trust you will indulge your old teacher by showing him a few plays?"  
  
"What makes you so sure I'll come?" I asked.  
  
By now he was in full Cheshire Cat mode. "You seem to enjoy using the sphere for late- night practices, Miss Linna. Good day."  
  
I stared at him, open-mouthed, then shook my head and headed out into the arena.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Cred!" - "Shit!"  
  
"Fro dra ramm tuach'd yhouha fydlr frana drao'na kuehk ynuiht rana?!" - "Why the hell doesn't anyone watch where they're going around here?!"  
  
"Y bnaddo kenm mega oui cruimth'd pa cu jimkyn, Secc Linna." - "A pretty girl like you shouldn't be so vulgar, Miss Linna." 


	9. Anti Wither

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I own Amirel. What I don't own: The phrase "the blitzball does not discriminate," as attributed to Rin. This was used in Mayumi-H's brilliant fic "For Love of the Game," which is THE best blitzball fic I've ever read and which can be found here: http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=588071. I urge you to open up a new browser window and go check it out right now. You'll thank me, trust me. ^__^  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 9: Anti-Wither  
  
**********  
  
"Linna!" Miyu's voice called as soon as I stepped out onto the lower tier of the arena. I looked around and found the magenta cloud in the front row. Taking the steps two at a time, I ran down and grabbed the seat next to her.  
  
"Congratulations on your performance in this morning's game!" she smiled. "You were truly brilliant, Linna."  
  
Guilt. Guilt. I knock her out cold with a ball and she congratulates me. Guilt. "I'm sorry, Miyu. It was the only way I could score." I sunk into my seat and looked away.  
  
"Don't worry about it. You played your hardest. If you were afraid to blitz to the best of your ability against your friends, you'd never make it here." Then she laughed. "I only wish I'd gotten to see the shot; everyone's been talking about it all day!"  
  
"Almost total fluke," I replied. "I have no idea how I did it."  
  
"Well, whatever it was, it worked."  
  
I was about to reply when the intercom started blaring again. "All right, folks, it's time for the second match of the tournament. This will determine which teams advance to round 2. This time around, we have the Kilika Beasts and Luca's own, the aces of the blitz, the Luca Goers!"  
  
"Noooooot that we're biased or anything," I muttered to Miyu.  
  
That moron Jimma interrupted the tirade I was about to launch into. "This'll certainly be an interesting one, Bobba."  
  
"Yes, Jimma, it certainly will. The Kilika Beasts have managed to hold their own in previous tournaments, but we've never seen the kind of performance from them that the Luca Goers are known for. Kilika has also not altered their lineup since last season, so their strongest link is still Vuroja, their rock of a center." Big cheers here, especially from me. You have to love the Old Man.  
  
"The Goers are dealing with an injury, though, aren't they, Bobba?" Jimma asked.  
  
"That's right, Jimma. Their guard Balgerda was injured during practice a few weeks ago. Forward Bickson is filling in for her for this game, and his position will be covered by Vilucha."  
  
Miyu sucked in her breath. "Vilucha is from Besaid. I would wager that Wakka and the others are not pleased that she has signed on with their greatest rival."  
  
"Think we'll see Balgerda back in the championship game, Bobba?"  
  
"Maybe, Jimma. All right, it looks like it's time to get started. Coming out now is the hometown team of Kilika, the Beasts!" Barely time for them to get into the water before the booming announcement that rocked the stadium. "And now...the pride of Luca...the rough-and-tumble city team with a winning streak as long as a Guado's fingernails...the team you've all been waiting to see...the LUCA GOERS!"  
  
When I finished rolling my eyes, I shot a general glare at the box for the Guado slur. When I finished glaring, I started sizing up the teams. We had good seats--we were level with the upper half of the playing field, so it was easy to see the players. From the air, I decided, the Beasts would probably look a lot like the Aurochs--a bunch of ragtag, homespun islanders who batted a beachball around and called it blitz. The Goers, with their trademark cocky smirks and expensive, custom-tailored uniforms, looked intimidating as hell. I waited to see if they would start taunting the Beasts, or if Bickson would pull that irritating handshake-punching move of his, but the teams made it to their respective positions without incident.  
  
With all the stops, the first half lasted a little under ten minutes. I was spellbound through the whole thing. No matter how much the Beasts looked like their mothers had hand- stitched their clothes (and maybe taught them to blitz), they knew what they were doing out there.  
  
But if I was impressed by the Beasts, I was stunned by the Goers. With only the occasional slight ripple on Vilucha's part, the entire team moved with such smooth perfection it looked like the players could have been controlled by one mind. The Kilikans never even had a chance. Abus was shooting like a madman, Graav was all over the sphere grabbing the ball, and Raudy's wary goalkeeping stance deflected every shot except one from ever touching that goal.  
  
By the end of the second half, though, I had decided that Bickson must have been Evrae in a past life, or at least been born with a blitzball in his hand. Watching someone on the sphere is never anything like the real thing, and it was easy to see why he'd become so famous as a blitzer. Even as a guard, he moved with a kind of fluid grace that left my jaw hanging open and my eyes wide.  
  
"Linna," Miyu said gently as Jimma and Bobba exulted over the Goers' glorious 4-1 win, "You are staring."  
  
"Huh? No, I'm not!" I went from confusion straight into denial, a trademark move of mine that most kids outgrow around the hand-in-the-cookie-jar age.  
  
"You appear to be impressed by Bickson's performance in that game," she observed.  
  
"Oh, is Bickson down there?" I feigned surprise and fanned myself with one hand.  
  
She raised her hand to her mouth and laughed softly. "You are an excellent liar, Linna. However, if you wish to convince me that you are uninterested in Bickson's role in the game, you should perhaps refrain from clenching your fists and murmuring, 'come on, come on!' whenever the ball-carrier passes him."  
  
"Have I told you lately you suck?" I muttered, sinking back down into my seat. I could feel my cheeks burning. She let out another peal of laughter. Her voice sounding like bells ringing. "I'm serious!" I insisted. "How come I never get to tease you? Don't you have a boyfriend or something?!"  
  
Her eyes, which had been bright with laughter, suddenly grew still. She was looking at the sphere. "Once, yes...a long time ago."  
  
To push or not to push? I was about to change the subject when she said quietly, "I...I suppose you should hear the story. Although we've just met, I feel as though I can trust you."  
  
"If you don't want to tell me, don't," I told her. "Don't upset yourself."  
  
"No." She shook her head. "I want to talk about it. I've never told anyone."  
  
She was silent for a moment, and then she began, "He...he was a blitzer. My family sold supplies on the Moonflow banks, and one day, he rode in on a shoopuf. He bought a shield from me. I found out that he had taken a room at a nearby inn and came to ask how the shield was working. Within weeks, we were engaged to be married."  
  
I sat, frozen. She was twisting her hands in her lap, still staring at the sphere. "And then," she continued so softly that I had to strain to hear her through the sounds of the crowd, "Sin returned." She smiled, with a look of simple helplessness. "He told me...he told me he had to go fight. He promised me he'd return. But he never did."  
  
She closed her eyes for a moment as she took a long, shuddering breath, and when she opened them I saw that they were a clear, dark shade of purple. I watched her blink as she tried not to cry. "I joined the Crusaders because I wanted to avenge his death by defeating Sin. I began playing blitzball because I wanted to honor his memory. I thought that, perhaps, if I could win the tournament, I would be doing something to remember him..." She clenched her fists. "But I can't even do that!"  
  
Neither of us spoke as she tried to calm herself, and all of a sudden I became aware of the noise of the fans in the sphere. For a minute, we had been in another world.  
  
After a long time, Miyu whispered, "Forgive me for burdening you."  
  
I leaned back and looked up at the sky. "You know why I blitz?"  
  
"Why?" she asked.  
  
"My mom was a blitzer. This probably won't mean much to you, but her name was Amirel. She was a forward for the Psyches when Rin was captain." I tried to pick out shapes in the clouds while I talked, so I didn't have to think about the words I was saying. "She wasn't a legend or anything, I guess--Bickson down there probably could have beaten her--but she was one of the closest things the Al Bhed ever had. Blitzball is the only field in Spira where we're treated as people instead of heathen savages. As Rin would say, 'The blitzball does not discriminate.'"  
  
Miyu was watching me intently now. I continued, "But she got off the blitzball circuit when she married Dad and had me. It was her only real regret. She always hated herself for settling down. She tried to be a good mother, but she was just too much of a rolling stone. And then--she had an affair with Rin.  
  
"He was the one who broke it off. He told her that she had to go back to Dad and tell him everything, that they needed to work things out--for my sake and my sister's, if nothing else. And she went."  
  
I was getting into the tough part. "The two of them--my parents--were going to take a vacation. Just a weekend where they could get away and talk, for the first time in years. They were on a ferry to Kilika when--bam--Sin came up and destroyed the whole thing. There were no survivors.  
  
"I can't remember her face, but I can still hear her voice clearly. My strongest memory of her is of me sitting on her lap, and her saying, 'Well, Linna, you killed my dreams, so you'll just have to chase them for me. You're going to become the best blitzer ever.' And I loved it when she talked to me like that, so I cried, 'yeah, I'm gonna be the best!'"  
  
The stadium was emptying out. We stood and stretched, but as we walked out, Miyu begged, "Continue."  
  
I took a couple of breaths. "Rin ended up taking us in. He never knew I knew, but I guess he felt like it was his fault. He was the one who taught me how to play blitzball."  
  
"So you learned Nap Shot 3 from him?" asked Miyu.  
  
I shook my head. "Uh-uh. I don't remember ever learning that from anyone. I think...maybe it was just in my blood."  
  
We passed a trash can on our way into the lobby, and I slam-dunked my empty cup in. "So we're both here because of the people we've lost," I shrugged.  
  
"Do you believe we'll see them again?"  
  
"If you're asking me if I believe in the Farplane, the answer is no," I replied. "When you're dead...it's over. That's why it's important to me to make the most out of life. I'm gonna keep my promise to her."  
  
We were reaching the locker room door now. "Well, I've gotta go. Practice'll start soon," I told her. "Are you gonna be in the sphere tonight?"  
  
"No," Miyu answered. "I will remain with the team. I assume our coach will wish to discuss my future employment, or the termination thereof."  
  
"See ya later, then," I said, turning to go.  
  
"Linna, wait." I turned. She was smiling.  
  
"Thank you," she said quietly.  
  
She bowed. On impulse, I reached out and gave her a hug. Then we turned and went our separate ways, each of us lost in her thoughts. 


	10. Brawler

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
(Except that Linna's just a little bit like me. ^__~)  
  
Author's Note: There are large amounts of Al Bhed dialogue in this chapter, and those of you who've already read it may have noticed that the translation format used in previous chapters doesn't work well here. Therefore, I've compromised: the dialogue in the story has been left in Al Bhed, but a full translation of the dialogue can be found in script format at the end of the chapter. This should make it a little easier to follow; you'll only have to scroll once instead of every other line. Please leave me feedback and let me know if this works. ^_^  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 10: Brawler  
  
**********  
  
"Woohoooooooooo!"  
  
Seven stares bored down on me from all directions. "Sorry," I mumbled. "I just had to get that one out."  
  
"You've earned it," Tidus grinned, slinging his towel over his shoulder. I crammed my old uniform into my duffel bag and wrang out my hair one last time. Water sprayed all over the bench, but I didn't care. I'd just done three hours of blitzball practice with the Aurochs without getting hit in the ass by a ball once, and I was feeling pretty damn good.  
  
"Is it time to go to the Cafe yet?" Keepa asked.  
  
Wakka shook the water off of himself like a dog. "Definitely time to eat!"  
  
We all cheered, me louder than anyone. Food was really starting to sound good, and I was totally zonked. But it was the good kind of tired, and the team that raced outta that locker room was a happy one.  
  
"Last one to the Cafe buys dinner!" Letty cried as he shot down the steps and through the lobby.  
  
"Where's the Cafe?" I yelled to Tidus.  
  
"Follow me!" he yelled back.  
  
"But then I'll have to buy the food!"  
  
"Not if you don't end up at the back!" He was darting past the reporters and the fans, and I kept up easily. I just pretended it was a blitzball game and he was carrying the ball.  
  
We sprinted out into the street, past the docks and the sphere theater, and into the central square of the city. Tidus pointed toward a sign that said "Luca Sports Bar and Grill" and I veered towards it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jassu and Botta coming up behind me. I slapped my hand on the doorknob and ducked through the door just ahead of them. A faint curse floated through the door.  
  
The room was dominated by a long bar, with several cafe tables off to the sides. Above the bar was a large sphere screen that was playing the recap of the day's games. Tidus, who was swinging himself up on a bar stool next to Wakka, waved and I grabbed the seat next to him. Letty was on Wakka's other side. I had just sat down when the two guards arrived, and behind them came Datto, panting like a dog and nearly collapsing onto his stool. About two minutes later, Keepa finally showed up, saw the entire team sitting at the bar watching him, and fingered his thin leather wallet with a heavy sigh.  
  
"What'll you have?" the bartender asked me as soon as I turned around.  
  
I really, really wanted to slam down a couple shots of vodka just to watch the expressions on the guys' faces, but then I remembered that I was a) underage and b) playing in the semifinals of the Yevon Cup tournament the next day and meekly ordered a virgin daquiri. It was slapped on the counter a minute later with the added fanfare of a little paper Aurochs umbrella, and I sipped at it as I watched Wakka and Botta, the only ones old enough to drink, put it away and get more and more bleary-eyed.  
  
I turned to talk to Tidus, but he was talking to Letty over Wakka's head, Wakka having put it down on the bar and decided to lift it only to drink. As amusing as I was sure it would have been to audiotape a vaguely drunk Wakka and play it over the intercom at the championship match, I didn't feel like trying to hold a conversation with him for fear he'd start ranting about untrustworthy Al Bhed or something equally dumbassed. I turned to the other side and watched Datto argue with the bartender for a while, citing his replacement in the tournament as cause for his need to escape from terra firma using booze, and trying to look older than a round-faced 16. I spent a moment griping about my own miserable status as a 20-year-old in a place where the legal drinking age was 21, then got over it and eavesdropped on Botta and Jassu's conversation for a few minutes. No one was talking to me.  
  
"Yd maycd drao'na hud ehcimdehk sa," I sighed to myself.  
  
"Aqlica sa, pid fyc dryd Al Bhed oui zicd cbuga?" asked a voice behind me. I turned to see man, obviously a little older than me, obviously Al Bhed, obviously Berrik, the midfielder of the Al Bhed Psyches.  
  
"Ur! Cra ec dra vunfynt vun dra Aurochs!" cried a girl with her long blonde hair pulled back into a thick braid that stuck out behind her. That was the youngest member of the team, the guard, Lakkam.  
  
"E ryja ghufmatka uv ran. Ran hysa ec Linna," cut in Nimrook. Wow. Nimrook, the hotshot goalie of the league for the last two years. And he knew my name. "Cra ec dra tyikrdan uv Amirel. Nasaspan? Dra yht ran cecdan fana nyecat po Rin?"  
  
"Rin?" they all echoed.  
  
"Ruf tu oui ghuf sa?" I snapped rudely. "Ed'c hud mega fa'ja ajan sad."  
  
"Ajanouha eh dra maykia ryc paah dymgehk ypuid ouin cillacc eh dutyo'c kysa. Oui ryja uin luhknydimydeuhc. Ed ec kuut du caa yh Al Bhed sygehk y hysa vun rancamv." Nimrook looked at me seriously.  
  
"Oayr, famm, oui kioc yna dra rusadufh days," I answered, downing the last of the daquiri. "Gimme another, would ya?" I called in English to the bartender, then back in Al Bhed to the group, "E's zicd y cdnaad nyd muugehk vun y pek pnayg."  
  
"E drehg oui syo veht ed rana," Nimrook smiled, and his eyes were kind behind his clear goggles. "Pacd uv milg eh dra sydlr dusunnuf."  
  
"Who the hell are you talking to?" Datto demanded all of a sudden. I looked around and realized the bartender had gone off to fix my drink, leaving Datto with no one to pick a fight with.  
  
"Just some colleagues," I replied. "They were wishing me luck. You mind?"  
  
"Those are the Al Bhed Psyches!" Botta announced.  
  
Jassu hissed, "Aren't they the ones that tried to kidnap Lady Yuna last year?"  
  
"Yeah! Those...those pagans...get out! You shouldn't even be here!" Datto was almost yelling. The word 'pagans' came out like a curse. The words 'get out' came out like a roar.  
  
I could see Lakkam's fists clench. She might not understand the words, but she understood the tone of voice. Nimrook held a restraining arm in front of her, and Blappa took hold of her hands to try to calm her. The captain's voice was cool. "As you wish. Fa'mm caa oui eh dra cbrana dusunnuf, Secc Linna." He motioned for the others to leave.  
  
"Wait a minute!" I snarled. "Get back here. You were here way before we were. There's no reason for you to leave."  
  
"You traitor!" Datto hissed at me, his eyes like a Basilisk's. "Bad blood always comes out, doesn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if you let them win tomorrow's match!"  
  
I stopped dead. "We're playing the Psyches tomorrow?"  
  
"That's correct," Nimrook said. "The winner will determine who plays in the championship game."  
  
"Whatcha gonna do, Linna?" taunted Datto. "Toughie. Are you gonna do the job you were mistakenly hired to do, or are you gonna stick with your heathen buddies over there?"  
  
"Lay off, Datto!" Jassu cut in. I whirled to stare at him.  
  
"Yeah, cool it already, buddy," added Botta.  
  
"I'll cool it when they're back where they belong--in that hell they call Home!" Datto shouted, slamming his fist on the bar. "And when SHE'S with them!"  
  
All of a sudden, I realized I was shaking with rage. I jumped off the bar stool, whipped off my goggles and brought my face right up close to his until he could see the green swirls in my eyes. He was quivering too, with hatred and fear.  
  
"Look, *babe*," I spat. "I don't know what your problem is. I don't know why you're so pissed off that I'm better than you are that you have to take it out on not just me, but an entire race of people who have done absolutely jackshit to you." I could feel my voice rising from a low, steely undertone into a yell. The bar was dead silent. Even the sphere had stopped.  
  
"But let's get something straight right now," I continued. "I'm sick of it. I don't care if you like me. In fact, I can't stand you. But whether you like it or not, at least for the tournament, I am a member of this team, and you'd damn well better come to grips with it! I'm not a little princess, a bitch, or a hooker. I'm a forward for the Besaid Aurochs, and I'm gonna score the winning goal in tomorrow's game to prove it to you and everyone else in this whole damn city!" Now I really was yelling at him. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then I hissed, "Get the picture?"  
  
He nodded, looking paralyzed. I jammed my goggles back on, got enough money out of my wallet to pay for my drinks and threw it at Keepa, and stalked out of the bar. When I was far enough away from him, Datto taunted, "You'd better score that winning shot, little princess, or that cute little ass of yours'll be back out on the streets!"  
  
I lunged back toward the bar, but the Psyches were behind me. Thinking quickly, Berrik took my arm and led me out the door.  
  
"Fryd dra ramm fyc dryd vun?!" I exploded as soon as it was slammed behind me. "Teth'd oui rayn fryd dryd pycdynt fyc cyoehk ypuid oui?!"  
  
"Oac, fa raynt ed. Fa ekhunat ed, druikr, vun ed ec ymfyoc mega drec. Fa Al Bhed yna ymfyoc dnaydat eh drec fyo." Berrik let go of my arm and they faced me all at once. Again, I got the impression of an army.  
  
"Ed cruimth'd ryja du pa dryd fyo," I said fiercely.  
  
Lakkam had turned to the others with tears hovering on her eyelashes. "Cra'c nekrd! Fro ec ed mega drec?!"  
  
"Huha uv ic mega ed. Hajandramacc, ed ec dra lyca. Fa sicd taym fedr dra cediydeuh yc ed ec," said Nimrook gently. "Fa dyga uin mayja huf, Secc Linna. Fa crymm saad ykyeh dusunnuf. Ihdem drah, cdyo yfyo vnus dra uha fru ec dnuipma." He turned, and they all followed, a silent army parting the crowds on either side of the street to walk straight down the center back toward the arena.  
  
I watched them go without moving. When they had faded from view, I kicked the wall of the Luca Sports Bar and Grill a couple times, picked up my bag, and ran all the way back to the stadium in hopes that it would clear my head.  
  
It didn't, of course. As soon as I got into the lobby, I felt a sharp pain in my right hand. I unclenched my fist to find the little Aurochs umbrella. It had cracked in half and one of the sharp ends had stabbed my palm, leaving a tiny dot of blood. I crumpled it in my fist again and kept walking towards the sphere.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
[note: All dialogue is translated from the Al Bhed unless denoted by an "E"]  
  
Linna: [to herself] At least they're not insulting me...  
  
Berrik: Excuse me, but was that Al Bhed you just spoke?  
  
Lakkam: Oh! She is the forward for the Aurochs!  
  
Nimrook: I have knowledge of her. Her name is Linna. She is the daughter of Amirel. Remember? She and her sister were raised by Rin?  
  
Linna: How do you know me? It's not like we've ever met.  
  
Nimrook: Everyone in the league has been talking about your success in today's game. You have our congratulations. It is good to see an Al Bhed making a name for herself.  
  
Linna: Yeah, well, you guys are the hometown team. [E, to bartender: Gimme another, would ya?] I'm just a street rat looking for a big break.  
  
Nimrook: I think you may find it here. Best of luck in the match tomorrow.  
  
Datto: [E] Who the hell are you talking to?  
  
Linna: [E] Just some colleagues. They were wishing me luck. You mind?  
  
Botta: [E] Those are the Al Bhed Psyches!  
  
Jassu: [E] Aren't they the ones that tried to kidnap Lady Yuna last year?  
  
Datto: [E, yelling] Yeah! Those...those pagans...get out! You shouldn't even be here!  
  
Nimrook: [E] As you wish. [in Al Bhed, to Linna] We'll see you in the sphere tomorrow. [turning to go]  
  
Linna: [E, to Psyches] Wait a minute! Get back here. You were here way before we were. There's no reason for you to leave.  
  
Datto: [E, to Linna] You traitor! Bad blood always comes out, doesn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if you let them win tomorrow's match!  
  
Linna: [E] We're playing the Psyches tomorrow?  
  
Nimrook: [E] That's correct. The winner will determine who plays in the championship game.  
  
Datto: [E, tauntingly] Whatcha gonna do, Linna? Toughie. Are you gonna do the job you were mistakenly hired to do, or are you gonna stick with your heathen buddies over there?  
  
Jassu: [E, to Datto] Lay off, Datto!  
  
Botta: [E, to Datto] Yeah, cool it already, buddy.  
  
Datto: [E, slamming his fist on the bar] I'll cool it when they're back where they belong--in that hell they call Home! And when SHE'S with them!  
  
[Linna jumps off her bar stool, takes off her goggles and gets in Datto's face; E] Look, *babe*. I don't know what your problem is. I don't know why you're so pissed off that I'm better than you are that you have to take it out on not just me, but an entire race of people who have done absolutely jackshit to you. But let's get something straight right now. I'm sick of it. I don't care if you like me. In fact, I can't stand you. But whether you like it or not, at least for the tournament, I am a member of this team, and you'd damn well better come to grips with it! I'm not a little princess, a bitch, or a hooker. I'm a forward for the Besaid Aurochs, and I'm gonna score the winning goal in tomorrow's game to prove it to you and everyone else in this whole damn city! Get the picture?  
  
[Datto nods; Linna puts her goggles back on and turns to go]  
  
Datto: [waiting until she's almost gone; E] You'd better score that winning shot, little princess, or that cute little ass of yours'll be back out on the streets!  
  
[Linna lunges for him; Berrik and the other Psyches get her outside]  
  
Linna: [exploding] What the hell was that for?! Didn't you hear what that bastard was saying about you?!  
  
Berrik: Yes, we heard it. We ignored it, though, for it is always like this. We Al Bhed are always treated in this way.  
  
Linna: It shouldn't have to be that way.  
  
Lakkam: She's right! Why is it like this?!  
  
Nimrook: None of us like it. Nevertheless, it is the case. We must deal with the situation as it is. We take our leave now, Miss Linna. We shall meet again tomorrow. Until then, stay away from the one who is trouble. 


	11. Volley Shot 2

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I own Mitza, but I really doubt anyone else would want him. ^_^  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 11: Volley Shot 2  
  
**********  
  
I closed my eyes and waited until my hand stopped shaking with suppressed rage. When I was sure I was holding the ball perfectly still, I kicked it so hard I felt my leg muscles pop. The ball zinged straight through the edge of the sphere. For a second I thought it was going to fall into the basin and I'd have to go get it--the kind of highly stupid move that actually can get you arrested if you get caught--but the water tension in the sphere held it so that it only left briefly before being snapped back in, as if by an aqueous hand.  
  
"You ever consider anger management classes?"  
  
I scowled and turned to face the redhead who had just entered the sphere. "Get lost, Bickson, I'm not in the mood."  
  
"Well, you risked your ass to get in here at midnight for some reason, and it was important enough to make you pick the lock--which, I should let you know, is probably a felony. Call me crazy, but the only force powerful enough to inspire such unstable behavior in such an obviously sane and rational young woman is obviously me." He had that smug little smirk on his face that made me want to punch him.  
  
"Of course," I answered in the starkest monotone I could manage. "At first I thought I'd just come here to practice, but you've made it so much clearer for me. Of course the driving factor for me has always been my mind-blowing lust for you. How could I have been so blind? I want you right here, right now, in the middle of the sphere."  
  
"I like it, although the delivery could use a little work," he commented.  
  
"I think your head could use a little work," I snapped. "Are you going to practice or not? Because if not, I'd appreciate it if you'd take off--if you can get your ego out the door."  
  
"You'd be surprised how much water reduces the weight," he quipped, tossing me his ball. "So how about it? You think maybe you can get a shot past me tonight?"  
  
"I seem to recall making at least one last night," I told him.  
  
"Okay, so you can Nap Shot, big deal, any moron can use a tech--although I must congratulate you on today's spectacular performance; I knew only the cool people would automatically gravitate towards me. What I want to see you do is get a normal, nontech shot in that goal, with me blocking."  
  
I was a little closer than halfway across the sphere. I kicked off a light shot first, just to see what he'd do. Yawning, he caught it and threw it back. This time I put a little more force behind the ball. He bounced it off his heel and returned it to me. Exasperated, I sent another really hard sphere-burster straight at his head. He blocked it easily.  
  
"Having a good time?" he asked.  
  
"You're an asshole, Bickson."  
  
"Yes, I'm quite taken with you as well. Come on, pretend that ball is my head or something."  
  
That time I almost got it past him, but he snagged it at the last second. That one shot was the closest I got all night. The next hour and a half was spent pretty much like this: I shoot ball, Bickson catches ball, Bickson says something that he thinks is witty but is really obnoxious, I retort, he retorts, I retort, he throws the ball back and we rinse and repeat.  
  
Finally, he said, "Okay, look, you're getting pissed off, I'm getting frustrated, what say we quit while we're ahead and grab some dinner so the evening isn't a total wash?"  
  
"It's not dinner. It's 1:30 AM," I told him.  
  
"Have you eaten since lunch?" he asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"Then it's dinner. Come on. I know this awesome fast food stand in the square. It's nothing fancy, but I'm starving and the portions are huge."  
  
I sighed and dove down to the bottom of the sphere to get my ball. "All right," I said. "Let's go."  
  
*****  
  
"You want to talk illegal? That has GOT to be more illegal than just letting myself into the sphere to practice," I ranted as Bickson shoved the key sphere back into his pocket and the two of us slunk out of the stadium and into the bright lights of the streets of Luca.  
  
"Do you really think in terms of more and less illegal?"  
  
I laughed. "Where I come from, I was so good at picking sphere locks they had to come up with a new kind of lock and name it in my honor."  
  
"Did you ever figure out how to pick it?" he asked, swinging around a lamp post.  
  
"What kind of idiot do you think I am? I had it down two weeks after they started installing them. I just let them think I'm clueless." I grinned broadly at him. "I figure if I can get away with it on my own, it's either legal or it should be."  
  
"So you figure that was more illegal because you couldn't have done it on your own? Great. Brilliant. I like the way you think. Anyway, it wasn't like I threw a party in there. We just went in, dried off, and came right back out. And it *is* my team's locker room."  
  
"Yeah, I noticed your benches are a lot nicer than ours. And that fungus on our walls? Totally lacking in your locker room. I don't know how you can stand to change in a place like that. So little character for a locker room," I deadpanned.  
  
"There's an advantage to being the home team, Linna," he replied. "In fact, I'm about to show you one of them. I'd rather eat at this place than any five-star restaurant in the city." He threw a sideways glance at me. "I don't see you taking notes. You should write a guidebook or something. 'The Luca Goers' Guide to Luca.'"  
  
"I'll pass, thanks. Who'd read it?"  
  
It was his turn to laugh. "I have no idea, but I'm sure there's someone out there."  
  
We were in the square now, and I looked at my watch in amazement. It was almost 2 AM, but the streets were still crowded. Music was coming from everywhere. We were surrounded by people.  
  
"This is amazing," I murmured before I could stop myself.  
  
"If you think this is amazing, I know where I'm taking you after we get our food," Bickson said. "Here. This is the place."  
  
He took off running. I sprinted after him and caught up a short distance away, where there was a brightly-painted kiosk off to one side of the square. The yellow and blue sign screamed, "BLITZBALL SOUVENIERS! 30% OFF!"  
  
"Bickson, my man!" The big guy working behind the counter let himself out of the kiosk to slap Bickson on the back. "Always good to see you."  
  
"Back at ya, Mitza," the blitzer told him.  
  
"All right, enough of that, who's the chick?" asked Soda Jerk.  
  
"This brilliant specimen of femininity is Linna. She's that forward for the Aurochs you've been hearing so much about. Linna, this here is Mitza, an old friend of mine from my street rat days. Ignore everything he says; he's all bark and no bite."  
  
"Sez you," Mitza snorted. "I'm guessing you guys aren't here for the blitz merchandise. Bickson, you want the usual, and for you, what'll it be?"  
  
No menus anywhere. I glanced at Bickson, who said, "Unless you can eat about a third of your own body weight at a sitting, I suggest you share mine. The burgers here are about three pounds cooked."  
  
I'm pretty sure my eyes went wide and slightly watery. "I'll let him eat off my plate," I told Mitza.  
  
He nodded and took the largest slab of hamburger meat I have ever seen out of the fridge. Carefully, he grilled it and threw it steaming hot onto the bun, letting the cheese melt on it and then adding lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, and pickles. While that was cooking, he grabbed several potatoes from under the counter, and deftly he sliced and fried them. Finally, he took a massive plastic souvenier cup, filled it to the brim with ice and soda, and plopped two straws in it. The whole process took under two minutes. I was severely impressed.  
  
We got the food in a paper sack--sack being the only word large enough to appropriately describe the kind of bag it took to carry all that food--and Bickson started to reach for his wallet, but Mitza waved him off. "Nah, nah, you don't bring celebrities here enough, man. I like your face, Linna. This one's on the house."  
  
"Interesting guy," I commented when we were out of earshot.  
  
"Yeah, but he's a total sucker for a pretty face. The team eats there a lot because...well, first, we can feed all six of us on two or three burgers, and second, because if we get Doram or Balgerda to order we can almost always get a discount." He started walking back towards the stadium.  
  
"Where are you going?" I asked him.  
  
"Hit the back entrance to the stadium," he replied.  
  
Once we were there, he took out another key sphere and inserted it into the door. It swung open and we stepped inside.  
  
Bickson flipped the lights on. "This is actually an emergency exit," he explained. "That key deactivates the alarm. From here, we take the fire escape stairs."  
  
"To where?" I demanded.  
  
He grinned at me. "The roof." 


	12. Invisible Shot

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Lawsuits = bad. Feedback = good. I believe these statements should be self-explanatory.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 12: Invisible Shot  
  
**********  
  
"All right," Bickson said as we reached the top of the stairs. "Close your eyes."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"It's the only way to do it when you're seeing this for the first time. Just trust me."  
  
"How am I going to keep from tripping?" I asked.  
  
He shifted the bag of food to his right hand and offered me his left. "Here. I'll guide you."  
  
I sighed, but I hoisted my gear bag onto my left shoulder and took his hand. He definitely had the hands of a blitzer, I noticed--big hands with well-defined muscles and long, slim fingers. He looked at me and I rolled my eyes before closing them.  
  
"Okay," he said. "There are two more steps before you reach the top. Take them slowly." I did. "Now you're at the last landing. I'm going to open the door. Step over the doorjam.  
  
"Now," he told me, "I'm going to guide you. Just keep following me." We walked for about twenty steps, and then he stopped and said, "All right. You can open your eyes." Slowly, I did.  
  
I was looking at the skyline of Luca. In front of me, the sphere was looming, huge and deep blue. Beyond it lay the city. All the buildings were gleaming with light, looking like pyreflies dancing. I spun slowly around to get the full effect and saw the sea behind me. In it were reflected the lights of the city.  
  
"Drec ec...ehlnatepma," I breathed.  
  
"Amazing, isn't it?" Bickson asked, already knowing the answer. "I did the same thing when I saw it for the first time."  
  
I was still staring. He let go of my hand and sat down on the concrete floor--well, the stadium roof, actually--took out the food, and began spreading it out on the flattened bag. "Have a seat," he offered. "It's not glamorous, but who needs glamour when you have a view like that?"  
  
I plunked myself down next to him and took a french fry. It was delicious--crispy, perfectly salted and everything. I took four more.  
  
"Here, try some of the burger," he told me, handing it to me. I sank my teeth into it and felt the juices flow into my mouth. I think I heaved a tiny sigh of esctacy.  
  
For a while, we ate in silence. When we were both full--we hadn't even come close to finishing the burger, even between the two of us--we threw the trash away and sat back down. I was still staring out at the city in total awe.  
  
Then I looked over at Bickson, who was watching me with a smile on his face. "You really love that view, don't you?"  
  
I nodded. "It's...I don't even know the right words. It's...unbelievable."  
  
He was silent for a moment, and then, as I watched, he reached out to touch my goggles. "You mind?" he asked, starting to slip them off.  
  
I flinched, involuntarily. "Where I come from, that's really rude, y'know that? Some of the old people won't even speak to someone who tries to take off their goggles. It's like a slap in the face."  
  
"Sorry. I wasn't trying to slap you." His face reddened and he took his hand away. He was still watching me, though. "I bet," he said slowly after a minute, "that if I were to take your goggles off, your eyes would be the exact shade of...let's see. They'd be the color of spring leaves in late afternoon sunlight. I'm sure of it."  
  
"Kud ed eh uha," I answered quietly.  
  
"That means 'right'?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah," I replied automatically, but then I stopped and stared at him. "Well? Aren't you going to make a big deal over the fact that I'm Al Bhed?"  
  
"Why?" Bickson shrugged. "I wouldn't care if you had four heads and a tail as long as you could blitz."  
  
"Too bad everyone isn't as open-minded as you," I almost growled.  
  
"Wakka's been on you, hasn't he?" he asked. "That son of a bitch. Look, everyone in the league knows he's just a racist hick. Not all blitzers are like that."  
  
I looked back out at the city. "I don't really want to talk about it."  
  
We fell silent again. After a while, I said faintly, "In our culture, the only ones who are allowed to touch your goggles are people you really like."  
  
"And since you hate my guts..." he said.  
  
I leaned forward and looked at him, willing him to try. He stared back at me for a minute, then tentatively placed his hands on either side of my face and took my goggles off.  
  
"I was right," he said finally.  
  
"About what?" I asked.  
  
He smiled. "Your eyes really are the color of spring leaves in late afternoon sunlight."  
  
I held out my hand for the goggles and he dropped them in. When I'd packed them carefully into their case and zipped it into a side pouch of my bag, I stretched my legs out and leaned back on my arms to look out at the city. A few feet away, Bickson did the same thing. He glanced over at me and chuckled to himself. "Those lights never get old."  
  
I shook my head. "No way. I've wanted to see this since I was a little kid. Mom used to tell me stories about the Luca skyline. She said it was the closest to paradise on earth humans would ever come."  
  
"They say Zanarkand was bigger, and I know Bevelle is, but it's pretty tough to picture a bigger city than Luca." His eyes scraped over the lights of the buildings below and then held on the blitz sphere. "Did your mother live in Luca or something?"  
  
"My mother was named Amirel. She was a Psyche forward," I answered, figuring he'd never have heard the name.  
  
Instead, he gasped. "Amirel?"  
  
"You know her?"  
  
"I never met her, but I've heard of pretty much every major player in the League from the last two decades or so. She was a real ace, wasn't she?"  
  
"Much to my infinite regret," I sighed.  
  
"Well, at least now I know where you get it from. She must've taught you a lot," he said.  
  
I laughed. "Yeah, right. When I knew her, my mother was a drunkard has-been trying to relive the past by cheating on her husband. She never taught me anything except that you can't trust anyone. Oh, yeah, and she told me that I had to be the best or I shouldn't even bother wasting good oxygen."  
  
"That's really harsh," he replied, sounding as if he'd been stung. "So how'd you get into the game?"  
  
"Rin," I answered. "He kinda ended up taking me and my little sister in. He taught me the basics. After that I street ratted until I got pretty good."  
  
"Ah, the immortal street ratting," Bickson smiled.  
  
"That was you too, right?" I asked. "Cough up your story. I hate talking about myself."  
  
"I was a street rat in more ways than one." The smile faded. "I grew up on the outskirts of the city. My family was dirt-poor."  
  
"But like every other little kid in Luca, you wanted to be a blitzer," I continued knowingly. "Am I right?"  
  
"Yep. As soon as I was old enough, I got a part-time job at the arena." He stopped, and I glanced over at him in time to see him laughing to himself. "I was the towel boy, if you must know," he snickered. "And I couldn't afford tickets to the games, but whenever I could, I'd sneak up here to watch them. That was my training--just watching the pros and mimicking them in the back alley later on."  
  
"So how'd you go from up here to down there?" I wanted to know.  
  
Silence. I looked over and he was lying down, his arms tucked underneath his head as a pillow, just staring up at the sky. "My parents," he answered almost dreamily. "They worked two jobs each for me. They spent almost all of the money they made paying tryout fees or league memberships or equipment costs. I never had anything fancy, but finally I had enough skill and enough gear to get myself on a team in the minor leagues, and from there I got scouted by the Goers.  
  
"I was a second-string forward for about half a season, and then all of a sudden I was the starting forward and people were noticing me. I became the new big-league star." He turned his head and looked at me. "That's what's gonna happen to you if you keep going like you did yesterday. You could be better than any of us."  
  
I stared at him. "What are you talking about? You're the best forward in the league. And you're an arrogant jerk on top of that."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to be trying to tear you down?" He snorted. "Please. All right, fine, you're a pathetic loser and I think you should jump off the edge of the roof right now, is that more in character?"  
  
"A little bitter, aren't we?" I asked.  
  
He scowled. "They did it to me. When I was just starting out, all the rich kids who'd had private blitz tutors and expensive, top-of-the-line gear and enough cash to burn laughed their asses off at me. They said, ha, look at the street kid, what a joke, and they were saying it right up until I started getting their positions on the team." Now he was smiling coldly. "Well, at least for now I'm the blitz ace, and I'm grateful to all those punks. If they hadn't pissed me off, I wouldn't have wanted to slam their faces into the bottom of the sphere so much and I wouldn't be here."  
  
"Is this a lecture?" I asked.  
  
Bickson shrugged. "Not really. But don't listen to anyone who tells you not to let those racist creeps get to you. Let them get to you--and then use that anger to win."  
  
I lay down next to him and shoved my bag under my head as a pillow. The sky was pitch black. Here, the lights of the city substituted for the stars.  
  
"Why are you doing this?" I asked him. "Why bother practicing with me? Up until yesterday, I was a total nobody."  
  
"It's actually all very logical," he explained. "First, I needed to let you stay in there the first night because otherwise you would've ratted on me, and Biggs and Wedge are assholes when it comes to my late-night practices. Then, when you said you were playing for the Aurochs, I wanted to take a look at your shot. See, I'm playing this tournament as a guard. That means the one team I don't want to deal with is the Ronso Fangs--even their forwards are like oil tankers. So I figured that since if I saw your shot I could beat you in a later game, it was in my best interest to work with you in hopes that you'd beat the Fangs for me."  
  
"But you're playing the Fangs tomorrow anyway," I reminded him.  
  
He sighed. "I know. Well, that was only the first reason. At least the second was okay."  
  
"What was the second reason?"  
  
He rolled sideways to look straight into my eyes. I felt a jolt of electricity shoot through my body, leaving my heart hammering.  
  
"Because you're cute," he grinned broadly.  
  
Then he was on his feet and striding across the roof toward the stairs. "Thanks for the date, green eyes!" he called over his shoulder.  
  
"Who said this was a date?!" I demanded, but he was already gone. "Ugh," I muttered, "Oui'na esbuccepma." But as I took one last look out at the city and made my own way toward the door, I could still feel my heart racing.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Drec ec...ehlnatepma." - "This is...incredible."  
  
"Kud ed eh uha." - "Got it in one."  
  
"Oui'na esbuccepma." - "You're impossible." 


	13. Elite Defense

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Lawyers, flamers, and other annoying people: irk me and I'll send an uncooperative little frog called Neko-neko-chan (or possibly Bob) to bite you.   
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 13: Elite Defense  
  
**********  
  
Before I even opened my eyes the next morning, I knew I was angry about something.  
  
Well, a lot of things. I was really pissed off at Datto. I was angry with the rest of the Aurochs for their almost complete lack of defense of me. I was upset that Naaga was working and stressed about her spending any amount of time longer and more significant than three seconds with Aniki. I was slightly ticked off at Bickson for being a jerk and really ticked off at him for NOT being a jerk and taking my goggles off and calling me cute, and I was irked at myself for letting him. I was also irked at myself for several other reasons, including but not limited to: blowing up in the middle of a crowded bar the previous night, not being able to get a shot past Bickson, revealing my life story to two different people in under six hours, and not making Keepa pay for my drinks the previous night. It was not looking like a promising day.  
  
By the time I threw on my uniform, yanked the snarls outta my hair, managed to snap my finger on the goggles strap and almost jam it in the door, I was a regular stormcloud. Even Miyu was cautious as she greeted me with a tentative "Good morning" on our way down the elevator.  
  
"What's good about it?" I asked sullenly.  
  
"You are going to win the game during it," she replied. I checked to see if she was serious. She was.  
  
By the time we reached the stadium lobby, I'd come out of the funk enough to ask, "How mad was Nav?"  
  
She smiled. "He wasn't. He seemed far more concerned about his plans for world domination than my shortcomings. I was told that I will require a lot of practice, but that few goalies in the league could have deflected such a shot. They...have asked me to remain on the team for five games so they can further ascertain my skill level. After that, we will discuss a more extensive contract."  
  
"That's really great, Miyu."  
  
"I know!" Pure joy radiated out from her face. "I can only hope I will be of value to them."  
  
"No sweat. Maybe someday you'll beat up Nimrook."  
  
We laughed together as we entered the cafeteria and grabbed our trays. This morning I spotted what appeared to be a lone blueberry muffin among all the bran things. My hand, which typically seemed to be smarter than my head at times like that, had already darted out and snagged it before I could think.  
  
"Hey there, green eyes," Bickson's voice said behind me. I actually felt him before I registered the sound--he had stepped in so close behind me I could feel the heat coming from him. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.  
  
"Good morning, Sir Ego Trip," I greeted him, with as much nonchalance as I could muster. Calmly, I poured myself a glass of orange juice and loaded it onto my tray, which contained the secret blueberry muffin buried under several power bars that I had slightly less than no intention of ever eating.  
  
"Back to acid? You have a late night or something?" The smirk again. He wasn't laughing out loud, but he didn't have to. His eyes were doing it for him.  
  
"Yeah, I conned some sucker into buying me dinner," I replied sweetly. "Have fun with the Fangs, babe."  
  
"I'll see you tonight," he laughed evilly into my ear before finally stepping away to pick up a power bar.  
  
"If you make it that far," I called. He did an exaggerated parody of a wince. I rolled my eyes at Miyu, who was laughing behind her hand again.  
  
*****  
  
Of course as soon as I sat down, Tidus grabbed my arm and whispered, "All right, what's going on?"  
  
I gulped and wedged the muffin further beneath the power bars with one index finger. "I'm trying to eat breakfast."  
  
"No, with you and Bickson!"  
  
"Oh, that," I yawned. "He's just a fanboy."  
  
"I hope so." He let go of my arm and turned back to his plate.  
  
"All right, quiz time," Wakka announced. "What do you boys know about the Psyches?"  
  
"They're evil," muttered Datto.  
  
"A little less abstract." This last from Tidus.  
  
Letty, apparently the most intellectual of the Aurochs, chimed in, "Physically, they're not as tough as the Ronso, but they're stronger than, like, the Glories, ya? I hear they got a good defense too."  
  
"That goalie of theirs, man, Nimrook? Word is he's murder these days," added Botta.  
  
Nimrook. He would be a tough goalie, I reflected, because he would stay cool and logical through the whole game. Everyone said he was a younger version of Rin, and after seeing his calm, polite demeanor the night before, I could understand why. They were both dignified beyond their years. A little bitterly, I caught myself wondering if my mother would have wanted Nimrook too.  
  
"What about their forwards?" Wakka prompted.  
  
"They're not bad, but Botta and I can take 'em." Jassu downed the last of his milk in a vaguely macho gesture. "With the Al Bhed, it's the ladies we've gotta worry about."  
  
"That seems to be true of more Al Bhed than just the Psyches," Datto interjected, glaring daggers at me. I crammed half the muffin in my mouth at once and counted to ten. By the time I'd swallowed, I was no longer quite as homicidal as I had been and I was able to merely shoot a frosty glance at him and keep eating in silence. My self-control must be getting better.  
  
"I think the Psyches need to worry a lot more about our Al Bhed lady than we do," Tidus joked, and I breathed a small sigh of relief. Apparently I was still on his good side. Clap clap yay. Always nice to know you don't lose points for hanging around with your team captain's mortal enemy. I polished off the rest of the muffin and grudgingly unwrapped one of the power bars.  
  
"Hey, speaking of her, what do you know about the Psyches?" Wakka asked me. Right away I got the impression that this was one test I'd better ace.  
  
"Everything they've said so far is right," I replied slowly, trying to summarize all the Psyches' stats in my mind. "Botta and I are going to need to watch out for Judda, their left defense. I hear she's really quiet outside of the sphere, but get her in that water and she's like a madwoman. Totally all over the place. The goalie, Nimrook, is also the captain, so he's usually the one calling the plays. That means that someone has to keep an eye on him at all times, and if we want to play a little dirty we can try to block their view of him. Oh, yeah, and Botta's dead on when he says the guy's murder. Statwise, he's probably the best goalie in the league right now.  
  
"Lakkam, their right defensewoman, is good but not that big of a problem. Her passing's the best thing she's got going for her. Berrik's the midfielder, but he's a serious volley shooter, so keep him as far away from our goal as possible. The two forwards are a piece of cake, though--Blappa and Eigaar are both pretty miserable at tackling, and Eigaar definitely has the only shot that's really worth worrying about. Overall, their offense is wussy and their defense is strong, but they're a really confrontational team--their games always take forever because of all the encounters. Still, I figure all we really have to do is score once and then keep them the hell away from our goal," I finished.  
  
Fourteen eyes blinked at me almost in unison. "Well," I grumbled, cramming the rest of the power bar into my mouth, "you asked."  
  
"No," Wakka said faintly, "That was great. You're like a walking stat chart!"  
  
"Yeah, well," I began, running a hand through my hair in a gesture of slight embarassment, "I was a total blitz fanatic as a kid. I know pretty much everything about the Psyches, about as far down as their tech lists and their blood types." Oh, great, now I sounded like a complete show-off. Hastily, I added, "The other teams, I just know the basics. But if you ever need consultants, you want to grab the kids kicking a ball around on the streets. I'm not the only one who memorized all those figures."  
  
"Who cares? I've played 'em for years and I never figured all that out," Wakka said.  
  
"Maybe because you're a completely unintellectual lug," was what I wanted to say, but I was getting a kick out of the let's-be-civil-to-the-heathen-savage-chick thing. So I settled for, "I hope it helps, anyway."  
  
Wakka turned to Tidus. "We're the first game up again this mornin'. Better start replannin' our strategy, ya?"  
  
"Yeah!" Tidus stood up, dumped his empty tray on the conveyor belt heading into the kitchen, and started out. Then he stopped, walked over to Wakka, and said something in a low tone of voice. Wakka shot a look at him, and Tidus started talking quickly. They conferred for a minute or so, and then Tidus raised his head and said, "Linna, can you come help us?"  
  
"You serious?" I asked. He and Wakka both nodded, with two very different enthusiasm levels. "Sure," I shrugged, and followed them out.  
  
*****  
  
"Okay, Linna," Tidus said when we were all gathered around the table in the locker room office. "You know from practice that we usually go in with a normal formation--everyone pretty much sticks to their general positions on the field unless they're carrying the ball. Given what you've told us about the Psyches--strong goalkeeping, good defense, kinda weak offense--is that a good way to go in?"  
  
"What are we trying to do?" I asked. "Are we going to try what I said--get a shot in during the first half and spend the rest of the game on defense?"  
  
"You think it'll work? Might be kinda risky, huh?" Wakka rubbed the stubble on his chin and leaned back in his chair, lost in thought.  
  
"Nah. Here's how it works: we score first thing. Letty and I can surround Tidus if he heads straight down the center and shoots, or he can pass it off to one of us and let us try to sink it. We'll probably need to get in really close--how close depends on what kind of gloves Nimrook's using today, but you wanna be able to see through his goggles. As soon as we score-- bam! Straight into defense! It doesn't matter who gets the blitzoff. All we have to do is take control of the ball and go into guard mode, and they'll have to break their defense to come get it from us. Then we just break tackles and pass the ball around until time's up."  
  
"Whaddaya think, eh?" Wakka asked Tidus. "Go in with a Center Attack or maybe Flat Line?"  
  
I cursed to myself.  
  
"Something wrong?" Tidus was looking at me. All of a sudden, he smacked his forehead. "We never went over those in practice, did we?"  
  
"I know how they work in theory, but I've never done 'em," I answered him.  
  
"S'okay," Wakka said consolingly. "You can figure out where the gaps are and fill 'em. If we do a Center Attack, all you have to do is back up our boy Tidus here."  
  
"Why not combine them?" I asked. "Start off with a Flat Line, then close into a Center Attack and surround the goal. Next blitzoff, we go into Counter or Double Sides and nail 'em with our defense."  
  
"Sounds good to me," Tidus said thoughtfully after a minute. "What do you think, Wakka?"  
  
"Okay here," the red-haired retiree replied, pumping his fist. "Let's show 'em what we're made of!"  
  
"I'm with ya," I agreed, grinning. But I kept my mouth shut about my own plans. I was gonna score that winning goal if it killed me. 


	14. Drain Tackle

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I know this is traditionally the space where I say something amusing and witty to try to deflect legal issues, but this chapter I have something cooler. There is actually a Linna shrine out there! It's called "i lost my gang" and it can be found here: "http://freespace.virgin.net/toonraider.uk/linna/" So everyone go there. ^__^  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 14: Drain Tackle  
  
**********  
  
"Well, this certainly will be an interesting match, Bobba."  
  
"It certainly will, Jimma. It looks like the Aurochs are starting to turn their pathetically miserable track record around, if yesterday's game is any indication. Their innovative offense brought the crowd to its feet in the first match."  
  
"Today they're facing the Al Bhed Psyches, the team they defeated in the semifinals last season. The rivalry between these two veteran teams is sure to be bitter, given the beating former Auroch captain Wakka took at the hands of the Psyches' defensewomen during that game."  
  
"The Psyches' defense is well-known for being ruthless, Jimma. Let's see how the underdogs hold up against them."  
  
I wondered if, somewhere in the middle of Sanubia, Naaga was watching this onsphere. I wondered if she still had a sphere to watch it on, or if the bill collectors had taken that, too. No, she was probably still on the submarine with Cid and Aniki. Gritting my teeth, I wondered if Aniki was keeping his hands off her.  
  
"Ymm nekrd, Linna, kad y kneb!" I mentally yelled at myself. "Cdyo vulicat."  
  
"Ready to go?" Tidus asked, shaking me out of my haze.  
  
I did the blitz symbol for victory. "Yeah, let's get ready to bring it!"  
  
Datto sidled up to me. In a low voice, he muttered, "You'd better bring it, girlie." I strained not to punch him.  
  
"...the Besaid Aurochs!" Bobba yelled. Wild cheers from the crowd. I jumped into the pool and swam out through the tunnel into the sphere. As we passed the Aurochs section, I glanced over at the front row and saw Miyu and Bickson in the fourth and fifth seats from the right. Miyu cheered and gave me the blitzer's bow. Bickson ran his tongue over his lower lip seductively and winked. I rolled my eyes at him and strained to try to find Rin through the crowd. He was sitting in the front row of the Psyches section, of course, but he bowed to me and gave me the thumbs-up sign. I did a quick backflip so he'd know I saw him and then swam out to my place in the center of the sphere to greet the opposing team.  
  
There they were in the flesh, their dark brown-and-red uniforms looking like dried blood against the clear blue water. Their goggles made them look impassive, like stone statues or soldiers. There was no pity in those faces, and with a jolt, I realized that was how I must look too. I couldn't see it, but I could feel their eyes on me.  
  
"Oui'na kuehk hidc," I decided as I swam out to my spot. I was now centersphere, flanked by Tidus and Botta. Berrik turned and mouthed something I couldn't see to Nimrook, who nodded and mouthed back "hunsym."  
  
I snagged Tidus' sleeve and told him, "They're going in for the standard formation. Just go straight for the goal and don't stop." He nodded and tensed for the blitzoff.  
  
*****  
  
Blitzoff #1 almost didn't go to anyone--Berrik and Tidus both leapt at the same angle and their hands ended up crashing into each other. Fumbling wildly, Berrik came up with it and tried to break through the line between Letty and Tidus. They both turned in on him. He broke Letty's Venom Tackle, but after that he cocked his arm and sent a pass sailing toward Blappa. Tidus leapt up and took about half the momentum off it, but the ball still went spinning straight into the forward's hands.  
  
Blappa tried to break up the right edge of the sphere. I dove for him, but I was too slow, and he was already grappling with Botta when I got there. He took Botta's tackle in the chest stoically and kept dribbling. His first mistake came when he tried to shoot from the center of the sphere and Botta snagged the ball out of the water like he was picking a cherry.  
  
Botta cut up the center, trying to get Judda out of the way so he could pass to Tidus. She was faster, though, and she intercepted the pass easily. Immediately, both of them sprang back at her. Botta's tackle left her winded, but Tidus couldn't block her attempt at shooting. She wasn't a forward or even close, though, and her shot had almost completely run out of momentum by the time Keepa picked it up and sent it spinning straight back to Jassu.  
  
Jassu streaked up the left side and converged with Tidus almost directly in front of the Psyches' goal, but Judda and Berrik had recovered and met him there. Desperately, Jassu tried to pass the ball off to Tidus. The guard couldn't touch it, but Berrik was ready and nailed it. Tidus just managed to catch it and run it straight up to the goal.  
  
Judda doubled back and she and Lakkam put themselves between Tidus and Nimrook, circling like hawks. Tidus tossed his head at them in annoyance, let the ball go, and punched it hard. I stared, wondering what the hell he was doing, until it hit Lakkam square in the chest and rebounded back into hands. He was using the ball to tackle! The second time he bounced it off Judda's shoulder. When it returned, he leapt up, spinning wildly, and then shot his leg out and kicked that blitzball with all his strength.  
  
Nimrook was probably as totally bewildered as I was, but he was better at hiding it. As I watched him, I was amazed by his ability to look dignified and calm even while lunging at the ball. He, like Miyu, had one of the best qualities in a goalie--a kind of fluidity that made every motion look graceful.  
  
As impressive as it was, it turned out to be worthless. The shot went in.  
  
*****  
  
The second blitzoff was automatically awarded to Berrik, and the other Aurochs melted into what I assumed had to be the Counter formation. The midfielder swam straight towards me, but I was ready with a Nap Tackle and my foot hit him square on the chest so hard I was a little off balance coming out of the tackle. I'd really wanted to see him sleeping when I spun back around, but he was blinking his eyes and recovering. I must have left him with almost no endurance, but almost doesn't cut it in blitzball, and now I was past him.  
  
He sent the ball to Eigaar, who broke far to the left edge and ran straight into Jassu and Letty. Without breaking, he hurled a long pass across the sphere to Blappa. Both of the Aurochs jumped for it, but it was still going. If I hadn't been holding my breath already, I would've started then as the ball slowed down, but it was still just barely moving as Blappa caught it. He ducked past Tidus and tried to get around Botta, but it was no use. Botta got the ball, broke midfield, and passed it to me. He was too far away, though, and I almost fumbled before regaining control.  
  
Then came my big mistake. Visions of scoring the winning goal and creaming Datto one started dancing in my head, and I broke formation to start heading toward Nimrook and victory. Instantly I was surrounded by Doom, in the form of Judda, Berrik, and Lakkam.  
  
There was no way, even a fluke, that even a Nap Shot 3 could get through that wall and score. My only chance was to try to break through all of them and pray that I could get the ball back to the others. Clenching my teeth, I tightened my grip on the ball and braced myself.  
  
Judda sent herself into a spin with one leg straight out. It hit me hard in the stomach. Involuntarily, I bent over double, struggling to keep from gasping for air. While I was bent, Lakkam hurled all her weight at my right shoulder. My body shuddered and curled up into a ball, white-hot pain shooting through my entire torso. I was floating in the fetal position on my side when Berrik reared back, totally inverting his body and slamming into my chest.  
  
I think I cried out, because I heard a strangled, animal-like noise and saw the bubbles rising from my mouth. It wasn't until I wrapped my arms around myself that I realized I no longer had the ball. Through the haze of pain, I lifted my head to watch Berrik shoot past Tidus and Botta and sink a shot. Keepa was still cursing as the buzzer rang for halftime.  
  
*****  
  
"It looks like Linna's in trouble out there, Bobba," Jimma was saying over the intercom.  
  
"She appears to be unable to leave the sphere," Bobba agreed.  
  
"Cdibet pycdynt yhhuihlanc," I muttered to myself. "Oui tuh'd lyna aedran fyo."  
  
"Linna! Linna!" It was garbled, but I could hear it. I blinked over--the sunlight suddenly seemed so bright--at Tidus, and realized belatedly that he had literally been yelling. It was the first time I'd heard any blitzer actually speak underwater.  
  
"Ramb..." I whispered, closing my eyes. I was losing consciousness.  
  
I must have inhaled, because all of a sudden I was aware of pain stabbing like a knife through my lungs and I was choking. Right away I was awake and panicking. Sitting down to starve in the snow in Macalania was one thing, but with water rushing into my lungs, I didn't want to die.  
  
The bright water was starting to fade into darkness. I was losing it again when I felt a pair of strong arms around me, pulling me through the water.  
  
As soon as we surfaced in the pool, I came to enough to gag and gasp for air. Someone was pressing gently on my chest, but I cried out and the pressure stopped. I was being cradled in someone's arms and sat up until I had coughed up all the water in my lungs. My chest still burned like fire when Tidus carried me into the locker room and set me down on the bench, but most of the choking had stopped.  
  
"What was that?!" Wakka demanded as soon as I opened my eyes. Tidus had my goggles off and was running a cool cloth over my forehead. "What happened to the formation we agreed on?!"  
  
The midfielder whirled on him. "Wakka, calm down! Can't you tell she's in trouble?"  
  
"I don't care! Look, Miss High-and-Mighty, so maybe you can shoot. Big deal! That does not mean you can break formation whenever you feel like it!"  
  
I spit out a mouthful of sphere water and gave him the evil eye. "Get off my back!" I sputtered angrily. "I did what I thought was best."  
  
"No, you were being a show-off, and--"  
  
"All right, that's enough!" Tidus was really getting angry now. We both shut up immediately, glaring at each other. "Linna," the captain continued, "I'm not gonna yell at you, because I probably would've done the same thing. But you gotta pick your times, okay? Now the score is tied, and we're not going to be able to use you in the second half."  
  
"What are you talking about?!" I demanded, struggling to sit up. "You're using Datto?!"  
  
"We don't have a choice. You're half-drowned, and you took a real beating," he explained.  
  
"Oh, not on your life!" I shoved myself up into a sitting position. "You guys got any medical tape?"  
  
No one moved. I reached out, hooked my finger on the opening trigger of the nearest locker, and grabbed the medical kit. Shakily, I stood up and staggered into the shower.  
  
Inside, I dragged the curtain across the metal bar and sat down heavily on the floor. It took some effort to peel the sopping wet vinyl of my uniform off my skin, but once I had the top off, I inspected my upper body. My shoulder hurt like hell where Lakkam had hit it, but I could tell that none of my ribs were cracked and nothing was broken. Viciously, I ripped the end of the medical tape off and wrapped the entire roll tightly around my ribs. In the bottom of the kit, I found two painkillers in a plastic bag. I didn't have any water, so I popped the two little blue pills into my mouth and ran the shower water down my throat until I could swallow. Then I put my uniform back on, pulled myself to my feet, and half-dragged myself back out into the locker room.  
  
"I am playing in the second half," I announced.  
  
Datto was already in uniform. The Aurochs were staring. Even Keepa stopped chewing.  
  
"There's no way," Wakka insisted. "Those Al Bhed really did a number on you. And you oughtta be benched anyway."  
  
I yanked the neckline of my uniform down with two fingers. Wakka's face flushed, but when he looked, he could see the shell of medical tape encasing my chest and ribcage. I let the vinyl snap back and stared him down with the full force of my green eyes.  
  
"This is my responsibility," I said quietly. "Fine, Wakka. I screwed up. But let me back out in that sphere and I'll fix it."  
  
"You're not gonna let her back out there!?" Datto interjected. "Look at that little princess! She's half-dead!"  
  
"Captain, please," I begged. "There's no other way we're going to be able to win this. Their defense is totally on fire today. I'm not seriously injured, and as soon as the painkillers kick in, I won't even feel a thing. But if you don't want to watch the Psyches walk off with the Yevon Cup, let me out there!"  
  
No one spoke. Finally, Tidus asked solemnly, "Is your insurance paid up?"  
  
"Yeah," I lied.  
  
He sighed and tossed me my goggles. "Then let's get back out there."  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Ymm nekrd, Linna, kad y kneb!" - "All right, Linna, get a grip!"  
  
"Cdyo vulicat." - "Stay focused."  
  
"Oui'na kuehk hidc." - "You're going nuts."  
  
hunsym - normal  
  
"Cdibet pycdynt yhhuihlanc." - "Stupid bastard announcers."  
  
"Oui tuh'd lyna aedran fyo." - "You don't care either way."  
  
"Ramb..." - "Help..." 


	15. Nap Shot 2

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
And hey, you should be nice to me and Linna. She got all banged up in the last chapter. x_x  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 15: Nap Shot 2  
  
**********  
  
The painkillers were finally starting to take effect as I slid gingerly back into the water for the second half. My entire torso still ached like a bitch, but the water was soothing, and now I was angry. Just when I'd been doing well, I'd had to go and blow it. Now, I didn't have any choice but to go out and nail a shot to the backboard.  
  
Blitzoff #3 landed in Tidus' capable hands, and he headed down the middle of the sphere. The rest of us had grudgingly fallen back into normal formation. He was just getting near Nimrook when he was caught by Judda, Berrik, and Blappa. He should have been able to handle Judda's tackle easily and then go for the shot, but I guess he was off or something and the Psyches' defensewoman wrapped her hands around the ball. Looking for a little payback for the gaping hole in the lining of my stomach, I lunged for her. She was totally bowled over, and she was still spinning when she threw the pass. Jassu and Tidus both grabbed for it, but the center was quicker. I could tell he wanted to shoot, but Judda recovered quickly and Berrik was still around there somewhere, so he passed the ball off to Letty. This might not've been too bright, because Letty was face-to-face with Lakkam, and he was trying to find an opening to shoot when Eigaar shot toward him from behind and grabbed the ball.  
  
In a series of moves so reminiscent of the Glories that I figured someone out there had to be channeling Nav Guado, Eigaar passed off to Judda, who took it--why not?--up closer to Nimrook so she could pass directly to Lakkam.  
  
"Drao'na gemmehk desa," I realized, and the realization slapped an evil grin on my face. Lakkam was swimming in circles so furiously that she didn't even see me until I was right behind her. Totally caught by surprise, she tried to feint and then pass the ball to Berrik, but it was already in my hands.  
  
"Ryr, DRYHG oui, byehgemmanc!" I yelled through the water. It came out as a glubbing noise, and the effort made my ribs ache just a little again, but I was still feeling a lot better now that the medicine had kicked in. I shot in a line of fire right through the heart of the sphere and closed in on Nimrook.  
  
"Cunno, syh," I mouthed. "Pid E'ja kuddy aynh so pnayt."  
  
He was still completely calm. Coolly, he asked, "Fro yna oui bmyoehk vun dra Aurochs?"  
  
I laughed, making glaarging noises again. "Palyica E mega aydehk."  
  
I could see Berrik and Lakkam closing in on me from either side as he kept questioning me. "Oui fuimt hud nydran ayd yc y nacanja bmyoan vun dra Al Bhed Psyches?"  
  
They were almost on top of me now. I knew I couldn't take another pounding. I charged up Nap Shot 3 and smiled sweetly at the opposing goalie.  
  
"Dyga ouin nacanja cbud yht lnys ed. E's yh Auroch," I said as I sent the ball sailing into the backboard behind his head.  
  
*****  
  
I couldn't see Nimrook's eyes, but I would have been willing to bet that no matter how staid he looked, he was not a happy camper. I definitely knew Lakkam wasn't. "Cra'c yh Al Bhed," she mouthed grouchily to Berrik as they made their ways back to their respective positions. "Fro fuimt cra fyhd du bmyo vun dras?"  
  
I saw Berrik's head turn towards me as he replied, "Rin fuimt cyo cra ec vummufehk ran ufh bydr du knaydhacc."  
  
When he reached his spot, I shot him a quick smile. He inclined his head, and then he was preparing for blitzoff.  
  
He took the final blitzoff of the game by default. The scoreboard clock read 3:20. A minute and forty seconds to go in the second half of the game. Now it was our turn to kill time. Letty interrupted the midfielder's drive in Keepa's direction, and they stared each other down as Letty flung himself at Berrik's right side and grabbed the ball. As soon as he had it, he began swerving around like mad, totally without any apparent purpose except trying to keep the ball as long as humanly possible. I saw Nimrook laughing to himself, watching the crazy Yevonite kid make a complete tehkpyd out of himself. I couldn't see Rin in the stands, but I would've been willing to bet he was chuckling too.  
  
Finally Judda and Eigaar accosted the wayward forward and got the ball, with an attitude that said, hey, we're taking *our* blitzball back now, thankyouverymuch. I grinned. Most of the slightly chubby Aurochs could probably sit on the slighter Al Bhed, but we were still as aggressive as ever. That thought made me wonder exactly who I was thinking of as "we," but I couldn't deny the fact that I was proud of both teams out there.  
  
But was I gonna let the Psyches win? I asked myself, thinking about Datto. Then I grinned again: not a chance.  
  
With that, I swam forward and got back in the thick of things. Fifteen seconds on the clock. I kept one eye on it as I came up on Eigaar, who was carrying the ball. Ten...five...the forward tried to pass to Blappa, who was farther downsphere, but I soared up and grabbed that ball back like I owned it. The buzzer rang in my ears. We were still up 2-1.  
  
*****  
  
"And that's a wrap, sportsfans! The final score of today's game: a 2-1 win for the Besaid Aurochs!" Bobba announced. "That puts the Aurochs in the championships, and it secures the Al Bhed Psyches a place in tomorrow morning's consolation match."  
  
"I think we're beginning to see a pattern here, Bobba," Jimma put in. "The Aurochs look like they're using Tidus to score in the first half, loosening up their defense in the middle of the game, giving their opponents' goalies a little taste of Linna's Nap Shot 3, and then keeping the ball away from their goal until time runs out."  
  
Tidus and I exchanged glances with each other. I hadn't even realized that was what we'd been doing. "We'll have to work on that," he mouthed.  
  
I gave him the victory sign. "Yeah, well, we'll give 'em a show for the championships," I shot back.  
  
"The championships!" Botta and Jassu yelled together, giving each other finger-blistering high-fives. "We're in the finals again!"  
  
I spiked the ball out of the sphere again and sent it zinging almost into the stands before it snapped back. No one yelled at me. The Besaid fans were going nuts. In the front row, I could see Miyu cupping her hands around her mouth, cheering. Bickson caught my eye and gave me a decisive nod. And then I looked over to see Rin stand up and yell my name. Within seconds, it had spread to the rest of the Al Bhed stands, and then the Besaid stands, and then the rest of the stadium, until it seemed like the sphere was shaking with the sound.  
  
"Lin-NA! Lin-NA! Lin-NA!"  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Drao'na gemmehk desa." - "They're killing time."  
  
"Ryr, DRYHG oui, byehgemmanc!" - "Hah, THANK you, painkillers!"  
  
"Cunno, syh. Pid E'ja kuddy aynh so pnayt." - "Sorry, man. But I've gotta earn my bread."  
  
"Fro yna oui bmyoehk vun dra Aurochs?" - "Why are you playing for the Aurochs?"  
  
"Palyica E mega aydehk." - "Because I like eating."  
  
"Oui fuimt hud nydran ayd yc y nacanja bmyoan vun dra Al Bhed Psyches?" - "You would not rather eat as a reserve player for the Al Bhed Psyches?"  
  
"Dyga ouin nacanja cbud yht lnys ed. E's yh Auroch." - "Take your reserve spot and cram it. I'm an Auroch."  
  
"Cra'c yh Al Bhed. Fro fuimt cra fyhd du bmyo vun dras?" - "She's an Al Bhed. Why would she want to play for them?"  
  
"Rin fuimt cyo cra ec vummufehk ran ufh bydr du knaydhacc." - "Rin would say she is following her own path to greatness." 


	16. Anti Wither 2

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I know this is traditionally the space where I say something amusing and witty to try to deflect legal issues, but this chapter I have something cooler. There is actually a Linna shrine out there! It's called "i lost my gang" and it can be found here: "http://freespace.virgin.net/toonraider.uk/linna/" So everyone go there. ^__^  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 16: Anti-Wither 2  
  
**********  
  
"Good show, Linna!" Miyu clapped her hands as soon as I emerged from the locker room. "I was so worried at the end of the first half!"  
  
"Yeah, me too." I looked down at my uniform and the taped ribcage underneath it. "I'm okay, though. I think I'll be bruised, but nothing serious. You know how tough the Psyches are, but I can't remember hearing they ever did any serious damage to another player."  
  
"That is for the best. Would you like to eat before the second match?"  
  
"Goers vs. Fangs, right?" I asked. "Oh, yeah, I'm there. Bickson already go in?"  
  
She nodded. "Yes?" Then a slow smile spread out over her face. "Why? Do you want to wish him luck?"  
  
"No, I want to punch him for that stupid tongue stunt in the beginning," I retorted. "Oh, fine, yeah, I did kinda want to tell him good luck. Maybe add that if he loses and I have to try to avoid getting pounded by Irga Ronso in the finals, I'll dice him into colorful little hunks of mutilated flesh and stuff them into the showerheads in the Goers' locker room so they'll rain down like confetti when anyone tries to use them."  
  
"You are one twisted biotch," Jassu commented on his way out. I wasn't sure whether to give him a winning smile or the finger, so I did both.  
  
"I have already expressed this sentiment to him on your behalf, in a slightly less... elaborate fashion." Miyu looked smug. "He requested that I relay the following message to you: 'Not bad, but there's one person you still can't score on, green eyes.' Is the meaning of this familiar to you?"  
  
"All too familiar," I grumbled. "Come on. I'm starving."  
  
I crammed my tray with watermelon and at least two slices of pizza more than I was capable of eating. As we made our way to a table by the glass wall that looked out onto the arena, Miyu laughed, "You shouldn't eat so much junk food. Think about how it will affect your blitzball playing!"  
  
"Think of how not eating it would affect my mental health," I said by way of comeback, folding a slice of pizza and eating it like a sandwich the way I'd heard people do in Luca. "I have to eat things like this when I'm in a good mood. Winning is like a high for me. Where's Maester Mika staying? I'm on such a high I could egg his balcony."  
  
Miyu gasped, then giggled a little nervously. "You shouldn't say such things, Linna. The maesters are merely men who wish to help Spira."  
  
"Yeah, help Spira embrace all that Yevon crap," I muttered under my breath. As soon as I thought it, I wished I hadn't. Rin was always on me to be more tolerant of other people. And not all Yevonites were bad, I decided, thinking of people like Miyu and Bickson and Vuroja. I wondered if Tidus believed in Yevon too. The Besaiders always acted like they were religious, with all that crap about heretics Datto and the others spewed ad infinitum. But Tidus wasn't from Besaid, was he? What had he said--something about the Zanarkand Abes?  
  
"Hey, Miyu," I asked. "What do you know about Zanarkand?"  
  
She looked at me, a little startled. She glanced around to make sure no one else was listening before she said anything. When she'd made sure that nobody was closer than Auda and Pah Guado rapturously listening to Nav bang his fists on the table and outline his plans for world domination, she spoke in a hushed voice. "It's a collection of ruins in the north. I believe it used to be a city a millennium ago, but it relied completely on machina. If I remember my training correctly, the legend says that it fell in war with Bevelle and was destroyed. It's said that all that remains is a great pile of rubble with pyreflies dancing around it. It is also the place where summoners go to receive their Final Aeons and defeat Sin." She looked as if she was about to say more, but all of a sudden she stopped. "Why the sudden question?"  
  
"I heard someone talking about it earlier, but since I'm totally clueless about the teachings of Yevon, I had no idea what they were saying," I bluffed. "But you're sure all that's left is ruins, right? No people? Definitely no blitzball teams?"  
  
This time she burst out into a peal of laughter. "No team from Zanarkand has ever been in the Spira league, at least not for a thousand years. Does that answer your question?" I nodded. "Anyway," she pressed on, changing the subject. "This match may prove to be a very engaging one if you maintain your interest in watching our friend. He was expressing his extreme confidence in his ability to, quote, 'wipe the floor with those fuzzy Ronsos like they were mops'."  
  
"What, he's applying for a job on the Luca Stadium janitorial staff?" I smirked. "I hear Gazna's been working out this season. Maybe he'll be able to smush that big head of Bickson's with two fingers instead of three."  
  
"I believe Gazna may be slightly more charitable than you, Linna." Miyu took a prim sip of her glass of water.  
  
I sighed. The stadium was beginning to fill up again. Vendors with big wooden boxes strapped around their necks were wandering up and down the aisles, hawking popcorn and team pennants and big fluffy globs of pink and blue cotton candy. The cannons were spraying the last of the water into the air, forming the sphere. I've always loved watching them fill the sphere; there's something inherently cool about watching a massive globe of water hanging in midair.  
  
"And then," Nav caterwauled, gesticulating madly with one finger, "I will overthrow Maester Seymour and RULE Guadosalam! After that, I--"  
  
"Four fingers?" I asked Miyu, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Perhaps." She giggled again. "Shall we go see this bravado in action?"  
  
"Can't think of anything I'd rather laugh my ass off at."  
  
*****  
  
Obviously, I didn't laugh my ass off, or I would've had a really hard time playing in the last game. It did get kinda sore, though, because I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the entire time. Vilucha was still faking her way through the offense, but she was doing a little better than she had been in her first match--the heavy Ronso were a lot slower than she was. Graav was making an effort to cover her back, and Abus did most of the real work scorewise.  
  
The defense was struggling a little more. Doram might look like a little girl with her cute brown pigtails, but she was knocking those Ronso off like dolls. Bickson, however, wanted to be back in his regular position upsphere, and it was starting to show. He was holding his own against the hulking Fang players in the first half pretty well, actually. It was in the second half that he started to show signs of wear and tear. From where we were sitting, I could see into the homeside sphere pool. Balgerda was sitting on the edge, her legs dangling in the water. Her crutches were by her side, but the thick cast was gone, and I wondered if she'd be back for tomorrow's match.  
  
She was biting her nails and kicking her legs in agitation as she watched Bickson grapple with the Ronso forward. "What are you doing, Bick?!" she yelled once in agonizing frustration. He shot an annoyed glance at her as he was bowled over by the heavier blitzer. The Ronso took the ball in and scored--he was just too close for Raudy to be able to do anything about it. I saw Bickson kick himself. It was the only real judgement error he'd made in the first two games.  
  
The next blitzoff sent the ball to Graav, who managed to get the ball upsphere to Vilucha. I spotted a couple of decent openings for a shot from where she was, but unfortunately she didn't have the famous Goer confidence and she hastily passed the ball to Abus. He made a daring shot straight into the corner of the goal, and there was no way that goalie could pull it out. The Goers pulled out a clean 3-1 victory, but Bickson was still furious.  
  
So was the injured guard. As soon as the team surfaced in the sphere pool, she slapped her fill-in across the face. I could've sworn she also called him "Bick the Dick," a nickname that had frequently been applied to him by various disgruntled losing teams and pretty much anyone else who'd ever been insulted by him (i.e., everyone who'd ever come within a fifteen-foot radius of him, quite possibly including his own grandmother). This jovial token of comraderie failed to amuse him, and they had an extensive, arm-waving argument that finally ended when Graav dunked them both into the water to cool off. If this had been a fanfic, I would've sweatdropped, but since it was real life, I had to settle for raising one eyebrow and snickering.  
  
"Are the Glories like that?" I asked Miyu, who was doing pretty much the same thing.  
  
She shook her head. "No. They are...somewhat more resigned. It seems like all the Guado want is to go to the Farplane."  
  
"That stupid walk-in crystal ball?" I stared at her. "Why? I mean, I guess it's convenient keeping it in Guadosalam for when you have an overwhelming urge to bullshit yourself or something, but I still don't get why you'd want to."  
  
Miyu went quiet again, which I had learned from the previous day was a bad sign. "That's where they found me," she said simply after a while. "I stayed on the north bank of the Moonflow, but each day I made the trek to the Farplane in Guadosalam to see him."  
  
"Why, though?" I asked. "The stuff you see in the Farplane...it's all just a projection of what's in your mind, right? You're just replaying your memories. Why not just do it with a video sphere, when you know for sure what you're seeing is real?"  
  
"Because sometimes, even when you believe that it is all a lie, you just want to see someone standing before you once again. And I do not believe the Farplane visions are a lie. Haven't you ever been to the Farplane?"  
  
I snorted. "Sure! All the time! Oh, come on, Miyu, like they'd even let an Al Bhed into Guadosalam, let alone the Farplane." I stood up, motioning for her to follow, and we left the stadium. "Besides, it ain't like there's anyone there I'd want to see."  
  
She smiled, with a calm tolerance. "You say that now, Linna, but when the day comes when you want to make peace with the past, you, too, will journey there seeking freedom from your memories."  
  
This time I scoffed and pushed my way through the crowd, still laughing. I had no idea then how right she was. 


	17. Aurochs Spirit

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Ooh, look, in this chapter, Linna's gonna try to explain why most of the defensive blitzball players are women. Stay tuned for more fun lessons on blitzball physics.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 17: Aurochs Spirit  
  
**********  
  
The bar was already jumping when I walked in the door and found Wakka and Tidus deep in conversation at the counter, their eyes locked on the sphere that was rebroadcasting that morning's game with the Psyches. The camera had zoomed in on my conversation with Nimrook and the subsequent Nap Shot 3. The Beasts were at a table in the corner, Vuroja presiding over them with a thick mug of ale in one hand. He would have looked like a judge except that he was still wearing his blitzball uniform. In fact, no one ever seemed to take their uniforms off around here. I felt slightly relieved that I wasn't the only completely abnormal person.  
  
Practice had been uneventful. The first time they'd kept the ball away from me completely, and the second time they'd kept me hopping by zinging it at me every three seconds, but today everyone remembered that I had about three yards of medical tape keeping my ribs from opening up like a cheap jewelry box and dumping my internal organs all over the sphere (which happens to be a foul in the major leagues, in case you're interested) and kept me in play without overworking me. I was appropriately grateful.  
  
There were a couple of Ronso in the corner, talking in their rumbling, gutteral voices so deeply that I couldn't make out the words unless they got angry. They appeared to be ranting about some incredibly wussy entity called "Keemaree" or something similar. I would've moved closer, but they looked insanely buff, like the kind of guys that would use even a blonde bombshell like me as a blitzball if they caught her eavesdropping. So I amused myself by watching them from afar and listening to Isken and Larbeight make fun of Deim for being too young to drink over at the Beasts' table. Finally, Tidus and Wakka finished their conversation and sat down at the bar, and I invited myself over.  
  
"Hey, guys," I greeted them, sidling up to the counter and grabbing myself the same stool I'd had the last night.  
  
"Evening," grunted Wakka. "Could I get a beer?" This last to the bartender, who instantly plunked a metal mug like the one Vuroja had on the counter. I was willing to bet Wakka was a regular here. The former captain chugged it and wiped his mouth with the back of his gloved hand. "Aaah, hit the spot."  
  
"Hey." Tidus was a little more cordial. "What's up?"  
  
"Not much. I'm just gonna grab a quick drink and then split back for the arena. I've gotta meet my old coach for one last practice tonight." I signaled to the bartender, who presented me with another beautiful virgin strawberry daquiri, complete with paper umbrella. I gulped it down easily (the drink, not the umbrella) and stuck the umbrella in my hair. It was that kind of a night.  
  
"Rin?" Tidus inquired casually, accepting his soda.  
  
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Stupid question. Everyone knew Rin.  
  
"I happened to run into him today. We were talking about your success and he happened to mention that he taught you the basics when you were younger. Actually," he continued, in a lower voice, "he also mentioned that he'd be interested in making a donation to the team after the tournament--'provided, of course, that your colleagues will accept it from an Al Bhed'." He did a reasonable impression of Rin's thick accent.  
  
"Speaking of our colleagues..." I tossed my head at the door, where Jassu and Botta were making the scene--together, as usual. I didn't know what it was about guards--in fact, I still don't--that makes them stick together so constantly. In virtually every other team in Spira, the two guards were females, often the only women on the team. There is a reason behind this besides the fact that it's politically correct to have women in the big leagues. Because females tend to be smaller than their male counterparts, it's easier for them to get up momentum in a tackle. That means they can put more force into a tackle, even if they weigh less than a male player would. But anyway, this generalization has translated into a joke about the way guards always seem to end up best friends, and Botta and Jassu were no exception to the rule. They even seemed to talk in unison half the time.  
  
"Hey, Cap'n Wakka," both of them greeted the redhead, who was slightly less drunk then than he had been at that time the day before. "Yo, Tidus, Linna."  
  
"What's up? How's life?" I greeted them, inexplicably thrilled that they had actually said hi to me.  
  
"It ain't half bad. Our team's in the finals, ya know." Jassu grinned.  
  
"Right," Botta said. "And we're gonna cream the Goers, just like we did last year!"  
  
"You can say that again!" Letty had just come in the door, with Keepa trailing behind. The bartender had the sodas and Keepa's steak on the bar before either of them even sat down. There were perks to being regulars, I decided.  
  
"Hey, so...what was up with that shot today?" I asked Tidus casually.  
  
He chugged the rest of his drink and set the glass down. "It's called the Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III."  
  
"Mark III, huh? You must've been working on it for a while."  
  
I was paying more attention to the daquiri than the captain until his bark of laughter made me jump and turn to look at him. "There's no Mark I or Mark II. It's not mine, either. It's my old man, Jecht's."  
  
"Waiddaminute! Waiddaminute!" I flipped a hand in his face, gesturing for him to stop. "Tysh. I know that name. I heard it when I was a kid. No, don't tell me. Was he a blitzer or something?"  
  
Tidus sighed. "Yeah, but that's probably not why you know him. He was a guardian for some guy called High Summoner Braska."  
  
"Hah! Braska! Yes! That's the guy that married Cid's sister! Your dad guarded him?" I asked.  
  
"Yeah," he repeated. "That is, after he walked out on me and my mom ten years ago."  
  
The bartender refilled both of our drinks. We both stared straight ahead at the sphere, which was showing the Goers' locker room at halftime of the Goers-Fangs game. Balgerda was whapping Bickson in the head with her crutch. "So you got ditched too, huh?" I asked.  
  
He nodded. "Yeah. By both of 'em. Mom just couldn't take it when he left." I didn't say anything. "What's your story?"  
  
"Tysh!" I shook out the knuckle I'd cracked. "Ehh, the old story--Mom was a blitzer, took off, she and the father got killed by Sin right before the Calm started. Two more weeks and I wouldn't've had a sob story to tell at bars, but as it was I just woke up one morning of my innocent ten-year-old life and found out that I was now the breadwinner, the housekeeper, the babysitter, and the entire damn laundromat." I'd really been trying to sound lighthearted and witty. I ended up sounding really bitter. I glowered into my daquiri.  
  
"How'd you make it?" Tidus asked.  
  
I shrugged. "Rin took me and my sister in. As soon as I could, I quit school, started working on my own. Blitzed and studied in my free time. What about you?"  
  
"Old guy by the name of Auron babysitted me."  
  
For the first time, I turned to study him. "In Zanarkand, right?"  
  
"I, uhm..." He rubbed the back of his head in embarassment. "I got too close to Sin. The toxin, you know...the truth is, I'm not really sure where I'm from."  
  
"Amnesia, huh?" I gave him a sympathetic smile. "Hey, man, you're lucky. I wish I could forget my formative years. Ten years of eating my sister's low-calorie rabbit-food cooking." He cracked a smile but didn't laugh. "Anyway, don't worry about it. It'll come back to you."  
  
"I hope so," he replied.  
  
*****  
  
My quick drink had turned into a third daquiri by the time Datto slunk in. Tidus, Letty and I were in a high-volume discussion--distinguished from an argument only by the fact that when we yelled at each other, we felt guilty--on the relative benefits and drawbacks of Hi-Risk. Datto didn't say anything to anyone, just moped all the way to his seat and sulkily guzzled his drink.  
  
When he'd been there a few minutes, Wakka got up off his stool and walked behind us. "I got somethin' to say," he announced, and we all swiveled our stools to face him.  
  
"When we started the tournament," he began awkwardly, "I wasn't sure about havin' an Al Bhed on the team. You guys know I don't like most of 'em too much." They nodded like bobble-head dolls. "I was totally against the captain hirin' Linna there. I figured I could put up with her until she screwed her up, and then kick her out." I scowled. "Cut it out, Linna, I'm gettin' there," he insisted. I wiped the glare off my face and let him continue.  
  
"But in the first game...she really showed us somethin', ya? And this mornin', when she just started rattlin' off those stats. Durin' the game, I started havin' doubts at halftime. But she scored the winnin' shot against her own home team."  
  
Wakka looked out at the team with clear brown eyes. "Now I know what I told you boys about Al Bhed. And I still say you can't trust 'em, but I think this one's proven herself. No matter what happens tomorrow, she's one of us now, ya?  
  
Botta catcalled. "Speech! Speech!"  
  
I twisted the umbrella, which was falling out of my hair. "I got somethin' to say too. When we started the tournament, I thought you guys were a buncha stupid, bigoted, chauvinistic jerks." They looked around at each other sheepishly and waited for the punchline.  
  
"I still think that."  
  
Then I continued, "But now you guys are MY stupid, bigoted, chauvinistic jerks, got it? And we're gonna do this together!"  
  
"But that doesn't mean you can slack off tomorrow!" Wakka warned me. "This is your first tournament. Might as well win it, huh?"  
  
"All the way!" I stuck out my hand for a high five. He slapped my glove and then did the blitzer's victory sign.  
  
Slowly, Tidus lowered himself to the ground and bowed. Letty, next to him, got down and did the same thing. Jassu and Botta moved at the same time and bowed down with their hands out in front of them. Finally, Keepa jumped off the stool and bowed too. Then he offered me two french fries from his plate.  
  
As I snarfed them down, I grinned to myself. What I'd told Nimrook had been the truth after all. Finally, I was an Auroch. 


	18. Hi Risk

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Seriously, if I owned them, would I be writing fanfiction? No! I'd be hard at work on FFX-3, wherein Linna is the main character and there are none of those stupid "battle" things.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 18: Hi-Risk  
  
**********  
  
It was around 10:30 when I left the bar and threaded my way through the streets to the arena. I used my key sphere to get into the locker room, dumped my hair-umbrella inside my bag and my bag inside my locker, and lock-picked my way into the awayside sphere pool.   
  
I was floating in the sphere, my eyes closed, just waiting, at 10:59 PM. It was dead silent, so I heard the tiny splash coming from the entrance to the sphere pool. I also heard the ball as it hurtled through the water. I listened to judge how far away it was and what direction it was coming from, and then stuck out my hand. Without opening my eyes, I lay on my back and waited until I felt the stinging smack of the blitzball as it hit my glove.  
  
I looked up in time to see Rin swim into the sphere.  
  
He smiled. "Oui'na kaddehk kuut, Secc Linna."  
  
"Rubavimmo oui ryjah'd mucd ouin duilr, Secdan Rin," I replied. As he came nearer, I zinged the ball back to him. He caught it easily.  
  
"I have spoken with Nimrook," he announced. "On behalf of the Psyches, he has asked me to convey his apologies for your condition."  
  
I shrugged it off, but when I thought he wasn't looking I gingerly ran a hand across my ribcage. It didn't hurt too badly, so I figured I was cured. "You think I'd be here if I didn't know how they play the game?" I asked him. "They've always been an aggressive team. I think that ref's eaten one too many Funguars, though. There is a ref, right? 'Cause I never hear from him."  
  
He ignored me. "You are correct. I taught them to play that way, as I was taught. Because our stature is generally more slight than that of other Spiran races, we have been forced to learn to put more force behind our manuevers." This was the same principle as the one that put females in guard positions. Aggression, however, was often characteristic of more than blitzball-playing styles with the Al Bhed. With our status as outcasts in Spira, it was widely understood that sometimes asking politely for what we wanted was not good enough. Shy Al Bhed tend to be a rare breed, and even when I was a little kid, my parents had been pretty careful to keep me from becoming a shrinking violet. When you're quiet AND sacreligious, the world tends to stomp on you hard.  
  
"Well, it was pretty stupid to try to break three tackles. I should've just handed the ball to Judda in the first place," I said ruefully.  
  
"You managed to get a buehd-pmyhg shot past the best goalie in the league. I believe you have made up for your mistake, Miss Linna."  
  
"Yeah. Even Wakka's putting up with me now. We might really have a shot against the Goers tomorrow, you know?"  
  
"I do. And I spoke with Cid on the sphere earlier today. He is disappointed about the elimination of the Psyches, but he sends you his congratulations and best wishes for the championship game."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, great, what about Naaga?" I demanded impatiently.  
  
"Would you like to see the recording?" he inquired, removing a small blue half-sphere set in a metal base from his jacket pocket.  
  
I gaped at him. "What are you doing?! Don't take that out underwater!"  
  
"Newest model," smiled the trader. "I have no idea how it works underwater, but it is impressive, no? Here is your sister's message." He let it float and pressed a button on the base.  
  
Instantly the sphere flickered. Inside, Naaga's face appeared. She had tugged her shoulder-length blonde hair back into a girlish ponytail and she was wearing so much eyeshadow that her luminous green eyes looked like they were glowing, but she still had that disarming, "I'm-so-cute-you-just-can't-be-mad-at-me" smile. I really hated that smile. It was the smile she slapped on her cherubic little mug every time she'd fried the kitchen and was about to suggest we go out for pizza.  
  
"Hey Linnie!" she said, sounding for all the world like Rikku, version 2.0. "I hope you're doing okay. I'm having a blast here! I've been on the sub with Cid and Aniki most of the time. We're not far from Bevelle now, but we've gotta be careful of the big snaky thing, Eevee or whatever it is. Right now we're heading home, so tomorrow afternoon I'll be back in the apartment, watching the big championship match! Stop freaking out, I got Ysamey to watch your stupid plants.  
  
"Oooh, guess what? Aniki's been sooooo nice. He says he'll take me exploring at Baaj sometime! Isn't that great? We're both finally getting to see the world!  
  
"Rin says he told you that I was doing some cleaning around Home. He says you were a real grouch about it too." She pouted so I could see the bubblegum-pink lipstick she had on. Where was she getting this stuff? "You should try to lighten up, okay? Don't be such a grump all the time! Have fun! Naida went to the tournament last year and she says there are all these really hot guys there, so if you find one, you'd better bring him home so I can meet him, okay?" She giggled, then stopped and smiled at the sphere. "Anyway, we've been watching all the games and it looks like you're doing well. We'll be cheering for you tomorrow! I'll see you when you get back Home, and remember, Sissy loves you!" She blew me a kiss and the sphere ground back into opaque blue.  
  
"Love you too, Naaga," I murmured to it, reaching out to flick the base with one finger. Rin scooped the sphere back up and replaced it.  
  
"I'll make sure this gets to your hotel room," he assured me.  
  
"Thanks," I said.  
  
"Well," he asked, "Are you satisfied that your sister is well?"  
  
Too late, I realized I was cracking my knuckles. A joint popped like a firecracker in my right index finger and I stopped, shaking out my hand. "I wanna know where she got that makeup!" I growled. "And she got the neighbor to take care of my hydroponic garden. As we speak, a total stranger is aerating my tomatoes! If they die, I'm gonna tear that sister of mine limb from limb. She's always doing crap like this!"  
  
"Miss Linna, has it occurred to you that Naaga is sixteen now? She's growing up. You are not her mother." His voice was gentle, but the words were unyielding.  
  
"Yeah, well, her mother was a deadbeat," I snapped back fiercely. "You heard her. She's running around with Aniki and those psychotic daredevil friends of his! She needs someone to watch her!"  
  
"Amirel loved you, Miss Linna." This time the tone was quieter but harder.  
  
"Nowhere near as much as she loved you."  
  
His head snapped toward me in amazement as he tried to figure out how much I knew. I met his gaze coldly through my goggles. Finally he hung his head and looked away. I just barely caught the word "Banrybc" fall from the profile of his lips.  
  
In frustration, I kicked the ball out of his limp hands. "You said you wanted to see me practice, right?!" I demanded. "Fine. I'll show you."  
  
If we had been on land, I swear he would have taken two deep breaths and counted to ten, a method of coping with stress that he had never stopped advocating when he was training me. "All right," he began. "I'd like to imitate Wakka, if I may: what do you know about your opponents in tomorrow's game?"  
  
"Vilucha's a crappy forward," I shot out immediately. More of that Al Bhed feminine aggression right there. "She'd be okay with some practice, but she just ain't cut out for the Goers. They were pretty desperate when they signed her. The other forward they've got in there, though, Abus--he's pro. He still can't touch their captain, Bickson, but he's good. And Bickson's probably gonna be on guard. No sweat."  
  
"Why do you say he will 'probably' be guarding?" Rin asked.  
  
"Their regular guard, Balgerda, hurt her leg a while back," I reminded him. Then I remembered seeing her sitting in the sphere pool without her cast on. "She's getting better, but I don't know if she'll be in the game tomorrow. I kinda doubt it, though. If we all break to Bickson's side of the sphere, we won't have much of a problem with Doram. She's the other guard, and she's like Abus--she's pretty damn good, but she can't touch the person who's supposed to be in the opposite position." Stop again. "Wait, tysh, no, I think her block might be a little better than Balgerda's. I can't remember."  
  
Rin moved one hand in a circle, gesturing for me to keep going. "And the goalie...?"  
  
I rotated my own hand back and forth in a gesture indicating mediocrity. "Just 'ehh.' Good reflexes, but Nimrook could still serve him for dinner. Keepa too, I bet. I'd be really worried if Bickson was on forward, but with him as a guard and Vilucha shooting...this'll be a cakewalk, Rin."  
  
"For your sake, I hope you are right, Miss Linna," he frowned. "Remember not to get too confident. There are always factors you cannot anticipate."  
  
"Does it matter? They try anything, I slam Raudy with a Nap Shot 3 and boom, we're back on top. That cup is mine, Rin."  
  
"Have you been talking to the reporters? Two games in the big leagues and already you're an ace?" He raised one skeptical eyebrow at me.  
  
"Why am I floating here listening to a has-been who's going to get skin cancer in three years anyway?" I asked myself out loud.  
  
Angrily, he hurled the ball past me. I lunged, but it kept whizzing between my hands and hit the backboard so hard I felt the impact.  
  
In a quiet voice, he said, "You have too much of your mother in you. Now get the ball."  
  
Seething, I went after it and kicked it back to him. He immediately fired it hard to my right, but I shot an arm out at it and spun it his way. It bounced off his knee and he spiked it directly at my ribs. This time, I had to flip around it to absorb the momentum. Coming out of the flip, I slammed my foot against the ball. It flew past him and smacked into his goal.  
  
He was silent, and mentally I closed my eyes and counted to ten with him. When the full ten seconds were up, he said, "You've come a long way."  
  
I laughed sardonically. "Just livin' someone else's dream, Coach."  
  
I saw his eyebrows crease in a distant frown, and then he reached up and tugged his goggles off. Now he was staring at me with the full force of those intense green eyes, and I wondered what Mom must have felt gazing into them.  
  
"Is it her dream now or yours?" he asked.  
  
My throat went dry and I didn't know what to say. He waited for a long moment, then put his goggles back on and retrieved the ball. "Think about it, Miss Linna," he said. "Best wishes in tomorrow's game."  
  
"You're not going to wait around and see some more plays?" I wanted to know.  
  
He shook his head and turned back so I could see what he was saying. The words he mouthed were, "I think I've seen all I need to know. Good night, Miss Linna."  
  
With that, he was gone. Troubled, I spread out my arms and fell into a dead man's float. I was staring up at the top of the sphere.  
  
"What am I doing here, Linna?" I could still hear my mother's voice ringing inside my head. "This wasn't what I wanted for myself. I can't be domestic; I'm a blitzer! I belong back out in the sphere."  
  
"Why don't you go back?" I had asked, tugging on her the edge of her glove. She always wore her uniform, even long after she'd left the sphere for the last time. Later I would wonder if it was her way of feeling close to the game or just keeping us away--the thick pants and heavy metal belt wrapped around the leather waistband of the Psyches' uniform made it hard to crawl up into her lap and uncomfortable to stay there for long. She kept one arm permanently encased in her trademark Golden Arm, a thick metal gauntlet that she said was the secret behind her legendary shots and passes. Unlike most Al Bhed at Home, she also wore her goggles constantly, and they were the high-impact racing kind worn by the Psyches, with a nose brace, a third strap running up the center of the face, and thin bands surrounding the ears and chin. I must have seen my mother's eyes at some point during my childhood, but I couldn't remember what they looked like.  
  
Her laughter had been bitter, and with a jolt I realized that the sound of it echoing in my memory was identical to the sound of my own laugh a few minutes earlier. "I can't go back now," she answered. "We're stuck with each other now. You killed my dreams." She was quiet for a minute, smiling at me coldly, and then, "Well, Linna, you'll just have to chase them for me, won't you? You're going to become the best blitzer ever."  
  
My eyes focused in on the sphere around me again. "Tysh ed, Sus, fryd ec ed oui fyhd vnus sa?" I whispered.  
  
I got no reply except the bubbles streaming slowly up to the night sky.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Oui'na kaddehk kuut, Secc Linna." - "You're getting good, Miss Linna."  
  
"Rubavimmo oui ryjah'd mucd ouin duilr, Secdan Rin." - "Hopefully you haven't lost your touch, Mister Rin."  
  
buehd-pmyhg - point-blank  
  
banrybc - perhaps  
  
tysh - damn  
  
"Tysh ed, Sus, fryd ec ed oui fyhd vnus sa?" - "Damn it, Mom, what is it you want from me?" 


	19. Volley Shot 3

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I own Reppi, the Spirals, and the entire conspiracy surrounding them both. Wondering what they're doing in here and how Bickson knows so much about what's going on? ^_^ Hmm...maybe someday it'll all be explained...  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 19: Volley Shot 3  
  
**********  
  
"I saw Rin leaving. Boyfriend?" Bickson asked nonchalantly as he came in a few minutes later.  
  
I had calmed down enough to be ready for Sir Ego Trip and his snappy patter. "Jealous?" I asked with a smirk. As he came closer, I opened one eye, remembered he probably couldn't see my eyes, and turned my face toward him instead.  
  
"You have no idea." He swam over and gave me a solid push on the back. I regained my balance rightside up and made a face at him. "So tomorrow's the big game, huh?" he said. It came out more like a challenge than a question.  
  
"Yeah. You ready to lose?" I asked him.  
  
"Lose? Me?" He laughed. "Oh, you were making a joke. Okay, I get it. Try something a little less far-fetched next time."  
  
I clicked my tongue. "Tsk-tsk. Poor Bickson, you just can't face the truth."  
  
Cue the Cheshire Cat grin. "You can't beat me. You love me too much."  
  
"I think you love yourself too much," I retorted, throwing the ball at him. He caught it and spun it toward the goal. I had to dive to snag the shot out of the water.  
  
"Impressive," he commented. "Potentially suicidal, but impressive nonetheless."  
  
"No, Mr. I-Truly-Believe-I-Am-Yevon's-Gift-to-Mankind, what's suicidal is going up against me." I aimed the ball so it would lodge somewhere deep inside his nasal cavity. This time he grabbed it with one hand.  
  
"Touche. You're starting to sound like me." The ball came towards me again.  
  
"Or maybe you're losing your touch. I guess we'll never know." Back at him.  
  
"Back to the ice statue act. So beautiful and yet so cold." I had to jump again to grab it.  
  
"Whereas you're back to the boulder act--so smooth and yet so dense." That one took a double backflip on his part.  
  
"You treat everyone this way, or just guys you like, *green eyes*?" I stopped moving and the ball whizzed past me. He smiled and wiped imaginary sweat off his forehead. "Thought so. Whew! That was exhausting! Okay, we've been through the requisite battle of wits; we can be civil to each other now."  
  
"That's your way of saying you're out of snappy comebacks." When I finished mouthing the words, I turned and retrieved the ball. It came flying back through the water at him with renewed force.  
  
"All right, that does it. If you want it, you'll have to come get it!" He had snagged it out of the water and was holding it with one hand. His other was on his hip in a gesture of total confidence that was hard to maintain underwater.  
  
"You asked for it, babe." I brought my body almost completely upside down to gain momentum, then rushed him. My hands connected with his shoulders and landed a double bullseye on the two target-shaped blue tattoos. I couldn't done it better with darts. He dropped the ball, flailing his arms wildly. I tried to reach for the rapidly-departing blitzball with one hand, but he was still off-balance and grabbed onto me for support. We sprawled through the water and spun end over end several times before finally slowing down.  
  
I exhaled a little relieved burst of air, sending a tiny stream of bubbles up to the top of the sphere. The ball was drifting lethargically a few feet away, but he hadn't let go of me, and my fingers were still wrapped around his shoulders. My muscles were half-tensed to pull away when the thought flashed across my mind: I don't want to.  
  
Agonizingly slowly, he reached up with one hand and gently took my goggles off. They floated silently away into the blue, leaving my eyes totally uncovered.  
  
I opened my eyes and stared at him. His fingertips just grazed the edge of my face before sliding back down to my waist. A small smile curved across his lips, but all the mockery was gone.  
  
The first kiss was slow and as soft and sweet as one of my virgin daquiris. The second was hungrier as we realized what was happening and the tension melted away. I slipped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. His arms tightened around me.  
  
"Now," he whispered when we broke, "Tell me you haven't been imagining that for the last three days."  
  
"I'm a good liar, but not that good," I admitted, because I had felt his heart pounding as hard as mine. "And I suppose that was just a whim on your part?"  
  
"Not a chance," he replied. His face was still close to mine, the smile hanging on his lips and in his eyes.  
  
"If you think I'm gonna let you win tomorrow, though, you've got another thing coming," I joked.  
  
"Oh, damn, well, that didn't work. I'll just have to try again." The kiss was longer this time. "Convinced that you should forfeit the match yet?" he asked a minute or so later. I think. Coulda been two hours; I really have no idea.  
  
"Nope. But at least I won't humiliate you too badly."  
  
"Oh, I don't think there's too much chance of that." He was Cheshire Catting yet again, with a smug little smirk that made him look like someone who knows a really great secret and refuses to tell anyone because it'll "spoil the surprise." "I've always got a few tricks up my sleeves."  
  
"Quite a feat, considering that uniform doesn't even have sleeves. What's the deal with these, though?" I traced the tattoos with my fingertips. "Were you in a coma and Graav decided it would be funny to make you into a walking dartboard or something?"  
  
He laughed gently. "No. It's the symbol of my first minor-league team."  
  
"Sooo...why the targets?"  
  
"We were called the Spirals," he told me.  
  
"Never heard of them."  
  
"That's because they don't exist anymore. The team was disbanded by order of the Maesters not long after I moved up." He reached up to stroke my hair, which had been floating in a golden mass around my face, and I leaned my head against his chest.  
  
"Why would the temples get rid of a blitzball team?" I asked.  
  
His face was dark. "I don't know. There were whispers that it had something to do with the name. It's not the only strange thing the temple's done--" Then he broke off and smiled down at me. "Well, uninteresting. Suffice it to say the six of us ended up with some really wicked tattoos."  
  
I looked back up at him, trying to remember who else had similar markings. "Letty and Jassu?" I asked.  
  
"Yep," he replied. "Those two are okay, actually. It's Wakka I can't stand. And that pretty-boy blond guy that says he's from Zanarkand..." Here he laughed, just a little ruefully. "He's like I used to be."  
  
"Well, you're still a pretty-boy," I teased him.  
  
"You complaining?"  
  
"Not at all. Who were the others?"  
  
"They got out of the game. Zalitz was working as a sailor around here, but I haven't seen him on a ship since last season. I hear he deserted. And Naida's working at the Calm Lands travel agency."  
  
"That's five." He grew silent and his fingers stopped moving through my hair. "Where's the sixth one?"  
  
"The goalie, Reppi...she went to pray at the temples. One day, she just vanished. The fiends must have gotten her." He was quiet. "She was our captain, the one who named the team. I remember thinking it was strange that they never found the body."  
  
"There's something strange going on with Yevon, isn't there?" I demanded. "Something deeper than dismantling blitzball teams."  
  
He bent low and brought his face close to mine. "I think so. But the consequences of not ignoring it are dangerous, and they're real. You're outside of it. Stay that way."  
  
"Why protect me?" I asked.  
  
"Because I can't let anything happen to you until I beat you tomorrow," he grinned.  
  
"I think you mean 'today,'" I told him. "It's almost 1."  
  
"Uuurggh, they're draining the sphere early tonight," he griped. "We've gotta get out of here."  
  
"Wait." Gently, I broke away from him and swam after the ball. "Humor me just once."  
  
"Are you still trying to get that shot in?" he asked. I nodded vehemently. "Okay," he shrugged as he positioned himself in front of the goal. "Give it your best shot."  
  
I wound up, did a backflip kick, and sent the ball flying toward him. Ten seconds later, he swam back over and placed it in my hands. He'd caught it.  
  
"Tysh!" I cursed.  
  
He looked at me in amazement. "Wow," he said finally. "I didn't even know you could crack your knuckles inside gloves that thick." I was not amused. "All right, I'm sorry. Do you have time to split another burger, or are you going to head back up and get some beauty sleep? Not that I'm saying you need it," he added hastily. How like a guy.  
  
"It sounds great, but I'd better pass," I decided after a moment's hesitation. "Tomorrow's gonna be crazy. As soon as breakfast is over, the consolation match is starting, and I really want to see that. And then...the big show."  
  
"Ah, yes, that infamous big show." He grinned. "Well, I'll let you go, then. Do I get a goodnight kiss?"  
  
I kicked once and streamlined into his outstretched arms. He reached up, brushing my bangs out of my eyes, and then pulled me close. This time there was no hesitation and no desperation. As our lips met, I thought, "Yes. So this is what it's like. This is the reason Naaga hits on every breathing male within an eight-mile radius."  
  
I was born without the sap gene. When Naaga cries over her romance novels, I leave the room. I sit through chick flicks facedown in the popcorn. When I go out on a first date with a guy, I don't come home and write our names in little hearts in the margins of my diary. But for some reason, that kiss sent sparks through me. I realized it was the same feeling you get when you snap two puzzle pieces together: this is right.  
  
When his mouth left mine, he kissed my eyelids softly and then whispered, "Good night, green eyes. I'll see you in my dreams."  
  
"Let's hope you'll see me slamming a shot straight into your backboard," I murmured, and then I was moving down toward the entrance to the awayside sphere pool, with my heart racing and my head swimming twice as literally as I was. 


	20. Good Morning!

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
All right, all right already, now no one can accuse me of falsely categorizing this story as a romance. Now it's time to get back to business. ^__^  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 20: Good Morning!  
  
**********  
  
I woke up on the morning of my very first Yevon Cup championship game with my arms wrapped around a now-flattened hotel pillow and a mouthful of pillowcase. Even before I spit the pillowcase out, I felt an insanely out-of-proportional rush of thankfulness that I was not sharing a room with anyone. The next thing I did was get my vocal passages unblocked so I could curse Naaga in the traditional manner--a routine I developed by the time I was 15 because she was invariably the reason I had to drag my non-morning-person carcass out of the rack so early. Actually letting the pillow go was about the sixth thing I did, after several rounds of reminding my groggy brain of such vital facts as "I got kissed last night" and so on down to trivial ones like "I'm the starting forward in the finals of the Yevon Cup, which start just a few short hours from now." Okay, so maybe I have one sappy bone, probably somewhere in my feet.  
  
I didn't get around to putting my feet on the floor and groping around on the nightstand for my goggles until several minutes later. When my hand failed to fall on the shiny metallic object with a strap and two eyeholes, I got concerned enough to actually look at what I was doing. Then I crawled around on the floor, searching the cracks between the bed and the table, the table and the wall, the bed and the wall, and so forth. Several minutes of exhaustive searching later, I finally had to conclude the obvious: my goggles were nowhere to be found.  
  
"Ur, cred," I breathed to myself finally as the scene in the sphere the night before replayed in my head for the eighty-million-and-twelfth time. He'd taken my goggles off. They must have been floating in the sphere somewhere, and I'd been in such a daze when I left that I'd forgotten to grab them.  
  
But the sphere would have been drained and refilled by that time. What had happened to them? Would they be lying in the basin somewhere? Would one of the cleaners have picked them up? What if no one found them? Or worse, I realized, what if someone found them and they were traced back to me? Breaking into the sphere at night, even to practice, was probably enough to get me disqualified. Right away, the inherently criminal side of my brain went to work planning excuses, everything from "I'm being framed" to "the butler did it." By the time I snapped myself out of it, I had gotten as far as a tearjerking scenario in which I managed to convince a bawling judge that I had only snuck into the sphere because my (imaginary, but they didn't need to know that) unborn child had a rare disease that could only be cured by exposure, no matter how indirect, to the water of the Luca blitz sphere.  
  
I couldn't come up with a plausible name for said extremely-rare-and-potentially-fatal disease, so I gave up and decided to go with plan B, which was: go the hell down to breakfast and pretend nothing's wrong.  
  
"Linna," Miyu called through the door. "Are you ready to go down to breakfast?"  
  
"Gimme like three seconds!" I went into overdrive mode. It took me about two minutes to throw on the uniform and gloves and boots, jerk a brush rapidly across my hair and teeth (not the same brush, obviously), and locate my gear bag only after tripping over it twice. I grabbed my key sphere out of it and ran. Thus, the Linna that appeared outside her hotel suite door after those two minutes was definitely a bedraggled, unkempt-looking one, but at least she was mostly conscious and she hadn't forgotten anything except the damn goggles.  
  
"Oh, Linna. You're not wearing your goggles," was of course the first thing Miyu said when she saw me.  
  
"Yeah. They're kinda gauche, you know? Come on, why are you just standing around, let's go already." I ushered her onto the elevator and out of the hotel toward the arena.  
  
"Did your training session in the sphere go well last night?" she asked.  
  
I am a professional liar, which means I didn't even miss a beat. "Yeah. What happened to you?" I wanted to know.  
  
She smiled with the kind of innocent sweetness that Naaga was always pulling on me when she'd done something incredibly stupid and didn't want to get bitched at for it. "I walked down to see if your practice would require a goalie, but it appeared the two of you were doing just fine on your own."  
  
"Peeping Toms everywhere," I groused.  
  
"On the contary; I did you a favor. I engaged both Biggs and Wedge in an hourlong discussion on the proper and judicial application of Anti-Status techs. They are..." she paused, trying to find the correct word. "...rather long-winded when prompted," she sighed finally.  
  
"Does anyone actually use Anti-Status techs these days?" I leapt on the subject change. "They're pretty unreliable anyway, and everyone's so concerned about inflicting stuff on other people that no one really bothers with defense." I personally was grateful for this, because my specialty, Nap, was by far the most useful one when it worked. Sure, shooting holes in someone's ability to block or sucking the life out of them is fun, but there's no way to argue when you're floating unconscious like a rag doll.  
  
"Wedge has some experience as a goalie. He was expounding on the benefits of such techniques when goalkeeping; for example, Anti-Wither is vital when there's a chance your catching ability could be halved. I use it myself."  
  
"But you'd be more likely to focus your game on things like Super Goalie and gloves that hold onto the ball more easily, right?"  
  
"Well, yes, just as you would be prone to using a metallic glove or an enhanced shot technique. Nevertheless, Anti-Status techiques are highly useful when going up against an opponent who is known to use status tactics. And that was my argument."  
  
I yawned. "Yeah, whatever. So, Psyches vs. Fangs. Who do you think is going to win?"  
  
"Well, the Fangs clearly have superior physical strength and prowess, but the Psyches are technically the better team. I believe Irga Ronso is--" I zoned out and focused on not slamming into pedestrians or reporters, and that got us as far as the cafeteria.  
  
As usual, the two of us split up to go sit with our respective teams as soon as we'd gotten our food--unfortunately, no secret muffins or chocolate bars this morning, but by then I was getting used to eating dog kibble--and for the first time I was actually greeted at the Aurochs' table. Letty even pulled my chair out for me.  
  
By now, I was starting to figure out the stuff about the other Aurochs that the stat sheets never tell you. Aside from being quite the gentleman, Letty was the token intellectual of the team, with the biggest head for figures and statistics. Datto was the baby of the team at 16, and that, combined with the fact that he was the deadest white human being I have ever seen except for Aniki, got him a kind of head-patting attitude from his teammates. Despite this, the others usually followed his lead when he had a strong opinion on something, which was most of the time (prime example: the "Let's Get Linna" campaign, in which his influence was eventually overruled by Wakka's. That was another thing about the whole team: they had the utmost respect for that crazy redheaded dude. "Cap'n Wakka," for his part, actually turned out not to be such a bad guy once he got past the whole green-eyes thing, plus he had this major crush on Madame Goth. I heard rumors flying around that he was related to that one guy Chappu that used to play for the Aurochs a couple years before I got there, but I never asked and he never told me). Jassu and Botta were, like I already said, buddies, but Jassu was smaller and wiry, with a serious "don't-mess-with-me-in-that-sphere-you-punk" attitude and a strange tendency to speak in some dialect of English he called "Ebonics." Botta was more easygoing and in fact spent most of breakfast that morning telling me the hilarious story of how he and Letty had snuck into Datto's hut a couple weeks back and shaved the poor kid baldheaded. And Keepa...well, he was Keepa, our teddy-bear of a goalie, with a total sweetheart personality and an unquenchable desire for food.  
  
Things definitely got easier after I stopped seeing them as basically the same jerky brain installed behind a bunch of different faces, and when they found out that morning that I could eat and curse just as much as they could, our table ended up the loudest one there. And so when we all trooped outside together to watch the consolation match between the Psyches and the Fangs, life was looking pretty good again.  
  
But the question of where in Spira my goggles were was still floating in the back of my mind...  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Ur, cred." - "Oh, shit." 


	21. Golden Arm

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I'm starting to run out of threats. Just don't sue me, or I'll get irked. And then I'll curse at you in Al Bhed.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 21: Golden Arm  
  
**********  
  
"Aaaaah! Come ON, Eigaar, let'sgo let'sgo let'sgo whaddaya DOIN' out there, sunbathing?! Get the ball!" I shrieked helplessly at the sphere. "Am I gonna have to go down there and SHOW you how to score?!"  
  
"Uhm...hey, Linna? I almost hate to break this to you, since you're havin' so much fun an' all, but...the game hasn't started yet," Wakka explained.  
  
I took a deep breath and cracked my knuckles some more in anticipation. "Yeah, I know," I replied sanely. "I'm getting warmed up."  
  
"You're one messed-up chick," Botta said almost admiringly.  
  
"Nah, just a backseat driver. We got any popcorn?" I fumbled around for the little paper bag we'd picked up on the way to our seats. Keepa passed it to me--all 18 kernels and a buncha nasty unpopped crud at the bottom of the bag that were left, anyway--and I scarfed down a handful or two and handed it back.  
  
"Three kernels?" the goalie asked, his eyes getting watery.  
  
"Whose idea was it to go cheapskate and buy a small popcorn that was supposed to last all eight of us through an entire game?" I replied quickly. Not that I was snapping. No, it wasn't like I was tense or anything. Nope, not in the slighest.  
  
Okay, so I'm lying. Psyches games make me nervous. That period of a couple hours before a big game really makes me nervous. Not having goggles really, really makes me nervous. And let's face it: who doesn't get just a little tense when the food runs out?  
  
"Yeah, well, maybe if SOMEBODY, not that I'm namin' names, Miz High-and-Mighty, had bothered to contribute just a little bit o' cold hard cash, we coulda gotten at least a medium," Jassu retorted.  
  
"Hey, look, it is NOT my fault that THESE tightwads, who I'm pretty sure are supposed to pay in advance, haven't coughed up my paycheck yet." I shot this back with a hand gesture that was the equivalent of a fairly vulgar curse in Al Bhed.  
  
"Three kernels?" repeated Keepa.  
  
Letty saw the mutinous gleam in my eye and stood up. "All right, calm down, I'll go get some mor--"  
  
"Well, Bobba, it's time for the consolation match of the Yevon Cup tournament," boomed Jimma's voice over the intercom. Right away everyone stopped squabbling over the popcorn bag and shut up. Letty sat down. I pinched him, but he pretended to be really engaged in staring at the sphere and I resigned myself to starvation.  
  
"That's right, Jimma. Both of these teams worked very hard to get here...oh, who are we kidding, they just happened to get seeded and end up in the semi-finals without having to do any work! Ha ha!"  
  
"Ha ha! Well, this'll be really exciting anyway, yessiree, no doubt about that!"  
  
"Are you trying to convince us or yourself, Jimma?" Letty asked appraisingly.  
  
"Raise your hand if you think Bobba and Jimma should switch to decaf," I said, surveying the Aurochs. Six hands shot into the air.  
  
Tidus, the only one who hadn't voted yes, cracked a grin. "I think they need all the caffeine they can get. After all, they're gonna have to deal with us in a couple of hours."  
  
"Anyway, today's consolation match is between the Ronso Fangs and the Al Bhed Psyches, and it promises to be a difficult one, right, Bobba?"  
  
"No doubt about it, Jimma. On the one side, we have the Fangs, the team with the most raw power in the entire league. On the other side are the Psyches, boasting an excellent track record and strong goalkeeping."  
  
"Thwip!" said the microphone. A few seconds later, the intercom squeaked and then we could hear muffled voices talking.  
  
"I've got 400 gil on the Fangs," Jimma was saying.  
  
"No way! I--oh, shit." The hand was removed from the mike. "Ahm, sorry about that, folks," Bobba said, loud and clear. "Anyway, let's get this match started. Here are the two teams."  
  
*****  
  
So I cheered until I was half-deaf and mostly hoarse and there was an eight-inch gap on the bleachers between me and the guys on either side of me. And I, like all sports fans, truly believed that the fate of the Psyches in this game really depended entirely on how loudly I could scream when they scored. And when the game went into overtime at 2-2 I was on my feet like a maniac yelling for Blappa until finally he scored and I sank to my knees on the concrete, totally exhausted and totally...well...psyched.  
  
"All right, boys...and you," Wakka addressed us when I'd calmed down enough to gather myself up and sit back down on the bleachers, "Our game starts in three hours. That means you gotta be back here two hours from now for warmups and pep talks, okay? Okay. Now scoot."  
  
I wasn't familiar with the concept of "scoot" or what it meant in English, so I figured he'd probably made it up, like most of the rest of the strange English words people used. I got the message, though, and I calculated that I had just about enough time to run back up to my hotel room, grab my bag, clean out another green sports drink or two from the minibar--maybe try to figure out how to charge it to Wakka's tab--and run back down to the stadium. Sounded like a plan. I hauled out of there.  
  
On my way back through the lobby, I happened to run smack into Rin (not literally this time, at least). I tried to talk to him, but he brushed past without a word. Puzzled, I made my way out into the streets and up to my hotel room.  
  
*****  
  
When I walked into the suite, the first thing I found was a largeish cardboard package sitting on my bed. The note on top said it had been dropped off at the front desk as a gift for me, and at the bottom was the helpful addition that it had already been scanned for potentially hazardous materials and checked out. Great. Nice to know no irked Yevonites whose teams I'd slaughtered in the sphere were holding a grudge. I wondered grouchily if they were tacking that security check onto my hotel bill.   
  
For a minute, I was actually hoping it would be my missing goggles, but apparently miracles just don't happen to non-Yevonites. It was the sphere recording of Naaga that Rin had shown me the night before.  
  
Sighing, I settled back onto the bed, set the little sphere in its stand up in front of me, and turned it on, figuring that watching my obnoxious little sister tell me to lighten up might get rid of some of that stress. I waited impatiently as the blue screen flickered to life and started to display the image.  
  
But it wasn't Naaga's face that greeted me. It was Rin's.  
  
I wanted to lump it with a pillow. "Yikkr, lusa uh, Rin, fryd dra ramm tu oui fyhd?" I demanded, scowling at it.  
  
"Secc Linna," he began, speaking in his distinct, cultured Al Bhed. "I am sure you're watching this with some annoyance, wondering as to the whereabouts of your sister's sphere. You have my word that it will be delivered to you. But there are some things I wished to tell you before this afternoon's match.  
  
"First, I must beg your forgiveness for my words yesterday. I realize that you have borne the brunt of the responsibility for raising your sister since you were ten years old, and I respect that you are trying to do what's best for her. It upsets me because..." here he looked away from the camera, which he'd apparently set up on the ground a few feet away. He looked like he was hidden behind some crates in one of the docks, and he was crouching on his haunches near the sphere. "...because I feel as if I should have been able to help you more. I failed you, Secc Linna, and I was given a chance to correct my mistakes and I failed you again. I could never replace your father..." Now he gulped, and I could have sworn I saw the shadows of tears hanging in the brilliant green eyes. As soon as I had the thought, I dismissed it as impossible. Rin had probably never cried in his life, right? "...no matter how much I might have wished it," he finished.  
  
"I think you know the truth now," he said finally, when he could look back at the camera. "And you have my apologies. But do not take it out on your mother. Amirel...I am sure you will have trouble believing me, and you will not be without cause. But Amirel wanted the best for you. She wanted you to do the things she couldn't--not for herself, but for you. She wanted you to be great, because she knew you could be.  
  
"I do not know if you will listen to my words or not, Secc Linna. I hope, though, that you will accept this. Your mother left this for you, telling me that she would give it to you when the time was right." His voice was getting thick now, but he choked relentlessly on. "Amirel never lived to see that day, but this is a gift from beyond the Farplane, intended for the day when you would become great. Whether you emerge from that sphere in a few hours as the victorious or the defeated, you have reached that day now." He looked straight into the sphere, and through the darkness and the glow of the docklights in the sphere, I could see that he was smiling for the first time. "Now go follow your dreams."  
  
The sphere ground into silence and blankness once again. I dug into the little styrofoam thingies inside the box and felt my fingers touch metal. With both hands, I reached in and pulled out a gleaming metal glove.  
  
I knew what this was. Despite the dozens of tiny scratches worn into the metal from years of constant use, the golden luster of that gauntlet was unmistakable. This was my mother's famous Golden Arm.  
  
"Tysh oui, Rin, oui'na cilr y cyb!" I burst out as a single drop of saline hit the gold and slid down onto the bed, leaving a tiny trace of water behind like a snail. As I slammed my fist into the bedspread, I realized I was shaking.  
  
I sat there for a long time, clutching my mother's glove and crying like a little kid again, and then I dried my tears, laid the arm carefully in my gear bag, and went out to prepare myself for the biggest match the Luca sphere had ever seen.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
Secc Linna - Miss Linna  
  
"Yikkr, lusa uh, Rin, fryd dra ramm tu oui fyhd?" - "Auggh, come on, Rin, what the hell do you want?"  
  
"Tysh oui, Rin, oui'na cilr y cyb!" - "Damn you, Rin, you're such a sap!" 


	22. Anti Venom

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
You can tell I don't own them, because if I did, I would be walking around in Yuna's REAL costume instead of my bad cosplay knockoff, and I would gloat about it. A lot.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 22: Anti-Venom  
  
**********  
  
I was the first one in the locker room, which was good because it let me take the last of the medical tape off and dress quickly and in privacy instead of scuttling off into the shower like a crab to change. Damn my father for giving me an X chromosome and forcing me to change in the shower, I thought bitterly as I slid into the skintight vinyl bodysuit. My boots--so tight they might as well be called leggings--snapped directly onto the bottom of the bodysuit, so they'd hold even under stress. I hadn't bothered closing about half of the eight clasps on each boot the last time I'd taken them off, so snapping them back together took only a couple seconds. Next I took my choker out of my bag, smoothed it, and hooked it around my neck (if you're wondering, no, there's absolutely no reason a blitzer needs a choker. It serves no purpose whatsoever except looking cool). Finally, I got out my sleeves. These are basically gloves that go all the way up to the shoulder. Imagine glorified spandex flippers, paint 'em yellow, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what my sleeves look like. Once I'd strapped them to my shoulders, I took a look at myself in the mirror over the sinks. Aside from the lack of my usual stylish eyewear, I was looking pretty damn good.  
  
At least, I decided as I opened my locker and started to cram my gear bag in, no one could say I wasn't original. I'd designed the uniform myself and Rin had had it custom-made for me several years ago as a birthday present. I would've put up with an Aurochs uniform--I'd have to make some modifications to the design of the overalls, but it wouldn't have been bad--but all the others had been handmade by various generous islanders for the players who were wearing them, which meant I couldn't exactly go into the uniform room and grab something in my size. I noticed that Miyu must have had the same problem; she had an average build, but the Glories' uniforms still looked like they had been made for children. Of the free agents, only Vilucha had managed to snag a team uniform.  
  
I was running through all these thoughts in my head to distract me from the real problem, which was the Golden Arm. After a couple minutes, I gave up, stopped trying to cram the bag into the locker, and took the glove out.  
  
For a while I just had to stare at it. This was incredibly stupid, because what I really wanted to do was pitch it into the ocean and let Sin eat it for brunch sometime. I knew that Golden Arms are pretty rare in the league. I knew that having one would definitely help my shot. I knew that, if nothing else, I could reflect the sunlight in it and, I dunno, try to blind Doram or something. But I could not convince myself to put the stupid thing on my arm.  
  
What finally made me do it was the memory of Tidus sinking that shot the day before. His dad's shot. Then I thought about the way he'd talked about his "old man" in the bar and how much they hated each other. Well, dammit, I'd been ditched ten years before too, and if he could come to terms with it and get something out of the experiences of his deadbeat parent, so could I. With a satisfying air of decisiveness, I jammed the glove onto my right arm.  
  
It felt a little strange. Out of the water, it was pretty heavy, but it curled perfectly around my fingers and the jointed knuckles moved cleanly when I flexed them. A thought flashed across my mind, the same one I'd had in Bickson's arms the night before: this feels right.  
  
*****  
  
"So where'd the Golden Arm come from?" Tidus asked as he came in. He was already dressed in his usual black-and-yellow outfit. In another lifetime, it looked like it could have been a blitzball uniform. He was also wearing his standard Golden Arm and, like me, he was wearing a useless piece of neck jewelry. Great minds think alike.  
  
I shoved my bag all the way into the locker, kicked the locker closed, and stood to face him. "It was a gift from a famous blitz player," I said.  
  
I could tell by the look in his eyes he understood.  
  
"Hey. You guys just get here?" It was Wakka, flinging the door open with such gusto he nearly knocked it off its hinges. I could empathize--most of the doors in Home are automatic, so it took me a while to get used to things like handles and doorstops.  
  
Tidus nodded from the position he'd claimed in the corner, where he was already doing toe-touches. "I've been here a couple minutes," I grunted as I started in on the pushups. For a split second I was really tempted to do them on my knuckles, bracing myself with the Golden Arm, but then I thought better of it. You don't blow out your muscles right before the championship game.  
  
Wakka put his stuff in the empty locker next to mine and took a seat on the end of one of the benches. I finished the pushups, put my back down on the other end of the bench, and went through the crunches. Keepa came in, slam-dunked an empty donut wrapper into the trash can we'd hung from the ceiling after practice the day before, and grabbed himself a spot by the office. Next in were Jassu and Botta, who seemed to be having a loud argument about which of them was going to get to ask some girl they'd met in the bar to our victory celebration. Botta was winning, as usual.  
  
Letty made it in the door just on time, although by then most of us were halfway through the warmup routine and I was perched on Keepa's feet so he could do his situps. Of course, Datto showed up exactly twelve minutes late. I was counting.  
  
"How'd Vilucha get signed by those stupid Goers, anyway?" Wakka asked conversationally after a while.  
  
"Oh, man, ya missed it," Jassu said. "It's always those same three. Bickson, Graav and Abus. They show up in the village like, what, a week ago?" Botta nodded. "And she's outside on the temple steps, just tossin' a blitzball around with some of the kids, and we're all sittin' around, chillin', yeah?"  
  
Now Botta picked up the story. "Those three walk right past us--actin' like we're not even there, ya know? And they're eyeballin' Vilucha and she's eyeballin' them, especially Bickson.  
  
"So they're all lookin' at each other, and Bickson says, 'Yeah, this one looks good.' And Graav just walks right up and says, 'Our guard got injured and we need you to be our forward in the tournament, okay?'"  
  
"And she smacked him, right?" I asked, flopping back on the ground and spreading my feet out so Keepa could hold them down.  
  
"No! She just goes, 'Are you willing to pay?' and they say, 'Yeah.' So they signed her right there."  
  
"Wow, of all the improbable plot devices. That's like a bad fanfic," I mused to myself.  
  
"What?" Botta asked.  
  
"Nothing," I grunted. "How the hell many more pushups do I have to do? What is that, Keepa, like 65?"  
  
"Try 30," Keepa replied. "Keep going, LinLin."  
  
"Dammit."  
  
"But then, those punks are always doin' stuff like that," Jassu was continuing. "They're real big on Brudda's 'play to win' thing. Wouldn't surprise me if they got a few tricks up their sleeves today, ya know?"  
  
"Like what? Lord Ohalland keepin' goal? Multi-Status balls? Evrae? C'mon, man, lighten up," Botta said, flicking his best friend in the forehead.  
  
"I'm with Jassu, buddy. I bet they're up to something," Wakka put in.  
  
"Paranoid," muttered Keepa under his breath.  
  
"Hey, Beluga, I heard that," Jassu snapped.  
  
"We've worked our asses off for the last four days straight. There's like nothing left they could do that we haven't run a play for." I groaned and sat up. "Finally. That's the last of the warmups."  
  
"You guys just about done?" asked Tidus.  
  
Letty finished his pushups in hyper speed. Jassu shrugged, checked to make sure neither Tidus nor Wakka was watching, and blew off the last 23 situps. This earned him another forehead- flick from Botta, but otherwise he got away with it. "Huh!" we all responded in the classic Auroch knee-jerk way we'd all been taught.  
  
The captain did his last crunch and launched himself into a sitting position. "Okay then. Take a couple of deep breaths and let's get out there and huddle."  
  
I closed my eyes and pulled a Rin, flopping back on the bench and staring at the insides of my eyelids for ten seconds. Clear your mind, I chanted mentally. Don't think about Mom. Don't think about Bickson. Don't think about the crowd. Don't try to find your friends in the stands. Just get out there and do the job they hired you to do.  
  
"Comin'?" I opened my eyes to see Letty, extending a hand to me. The other guys were already at the door. I grabbed his hand, pulled myself up, and followed them.  
  
We all filed out into the hallway and formed a tight huddle at the far end. "All right, guys, what are we gonna do?!" Tidus yelled.  
  
"Win!" we shouted back in unison, like highly enthusiastic lemmings.  
  
"Because we're the number one team in Spira!" Tidus grinned and did the victory sign.  
  
"Because, statistically, our data shows--"  
  
Jassu cut Letty off. "Because we got the best defense out there!" He and Botta high- fived.  
  
"Because our goalkeeping rocks!" Keepa gave a decisive nod as he spoke.  
  
"Because we've got a gorgeous Nap-Shotting forward!" I announced, pumping the fist with the Golden Arm on it.  
  
"BECAUSE I'M NOT ON THE BENCH!" Botta shouted as loudly as humanly possible, clearly pleased with himself.  
  
"Now get out there and show those Goers who's boss!" Wakka ordered.  
  
"HUH!" we all yelled, straight from the gut, and then the heavy metal doors were sliding open for us and we were surging toward the awayside sphere pool. 


	23. Nap Pass

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
In this chapter, I've done my best to try and explain a quasi-plausible explanation for the basic blitz physics question of "how on earth do they get into the sphere?!" To the best of my knowledge, this question was never answered in the game. If I've missed anything, please let me know.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 23: Nap Pass  
  
**********  
  
The path from the locker room to the sphere is twenty, maybe thirty yards, but before a game, it stretches into eternity. From the locker room door, you hang a right and go down the hallway and through that heavy metal door that slides up and plunges you into the darkness of the sphere pool.  
  
The term "sphere pool" is used to refer to both the actual sphere where the games are played and the entrances to that sphere. That door, though, leads to the entrance. It is the threshold that marks the point of no return. Fans, coaches, reporters, for all of them, that door is the wall. From then on, the blitzers take their final steps alone.  
  
The awayside sphere pool is concrete, not exactly glamorous. Imagine a concrete box, with that door at one end. About two-thirds of the way from the door to the opposite wall, the bottom drops out and gives way to the clear blue water of the sphere.  
  
There are no benches, no fixtures, no light except a couple of half-dead lamps at the top of the walls. You can cut the tension with a steak knife and serve it two weeks later at the bar with a little plum sauce. Nothing moves except the others trapped there with you and the occasional ripple of the water. They say that sphere pool can drive you insane. I believe them.  
  
I knelt by the wall, trying to calm myself. I was breathing harder than I should have been. My hair fell into my eyes over and over again, and after a while I gave up on trying to push it away and let it hang there.  
  
"Come on, come on, let's go!" Tidus was muttering. He was crouched a few feet away from me, his muscles tensed to jump at an instant's notice. Letty was pacing back and forth in the back of the alcove, near the heavy metal door we'd come in through. Keepa was sprawled on his back on the ground, spread-eagled, his eyes closed. Jassu and Botta were both leaning against the wall. Every couple minutes, Botta would try to make a joke, but no one was listening. Jassu swung his arms back and forth. No one said anything. My own adrenaline threatened to rise in my throat and suffocate me.  
  
"All right, sportsfans, this is the moment you've all been waiting for," Jimma intoned in a hushed voice over the intercom. His voice slammed through the silence like a bullet and I jumped. Keepa flew upright, looking around wildly.  
  
"That's right, Jimma. It all comes down to this. Today, folks, is the championship match of the Yevon Cup tournament!  
  
"And what a championship match. In the past, there were always two ends of the spectrum in this tournament: the very best and the very worst. Our own Luca Goers have consistently shown the power, speed and teamwork that have made them champions. On the other hand, the Besaid Aurochs were famous for their truly abysmal game and their amazing ability to make it through entire seasons without scoring a single point.  
  
"Last season, though, all that changed," Bobba finished. "The Besaid Aurochs took home the Yevon Cup for the first time in decades."  
  
"Will the Goers be able to reclaim their title? Will the Aurochs be able to defend theirs? THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!" Jimma sounded just a little frantic. I could imagine him up in the booth, clutching Bobba's collar and foaming at the mouth. He thought the suspense was killing *him?*  
  
"Whoa there, Jimma," Bobba chuckled. He was making an audible effort not to freak out. "We still haven't talked about the rosters yet! The Aurochs are really shining this tournament with two outstanding shooters. Center Tidus and right forward Linna, two newbies to the league, have shown that while they may be new, they're definitely not rookies. In the first game, we saw Linna's incredible Nap Shot 3/Volley Shot combination, and in yesterday's match, Tidus scored with an unbelievable shot that had never been seen in the league before. The other forward is Letty, who hasn't been getting as much ball time as the others since he was replaced as center by Tidus, but hopefully we'll see some action from him today, right, Jimma? Now, on the Goers' side, the starting lineup has been--"  
  
"CAN WE START ALREADY?!" shrieked Jimma.  
  
"Nonononono!" Tidus was shaking his head back and forth so wildly that another three seconds would give him whiplash. "Nono! The Goers' starting lineup has been what?! What happened to their lineup?!"  
  
"It doesn't matter," I told him grimly. "We're about to find out."  
  
"Ooookay then, Jimma." Now I was willing to bet that Bobba had both hands palm up in a gesture of 'please don't hurt me, I'm just a harmless commentator' and was backing away slowly, probably without looking his co-announcer directly in the eyes in case he was easily provoked. "Well, in that case, I guess we'd better get this game started!"  
  
Swearing to himself, Tidus sat on the edge of the cement floor and eased his legs into the water, then pushed himself off and jumped in. This was our cue: it was time.  
  
I clenched my right fist inside the Golden Arm and stood up.  
  
You're going to become the best blitzer ever, Linna.  
  
I took my last breath in five minutes and dove in.  
  
*****  
  
I never heard either Bobba or Jimma announce us--I was either too out of it or too focused on the sphere. At some point, though, Tidus flipped downward and kicked once, streamlining through the tunnel. We followed blindly. Instinct had kicked in.  
  
The sphere pools are actually located under the stands. They're connected to the sphere by flooded tunnels that go straight down and then out, leading blitzers up into the bottom of the sphere. These tunnels are pitch-dark, with lights--electric, machina lights; take that, Yevonites--only at the bottom corner. Like all the others before us, we had to feel our way through until suddenly, there we were, in the heart of the sphere.  
  
I'm not religious. I don't believe in Yevon, or the Farplane, or the teachings. Like all Al Bhed except the scattered few who convert, I'm agnostic. But if I believed in angels, that's what I would say the Luca Goers looked like as they swam toward us. Bathed in the blinding sunlight, they advanced on us. Until they finally stopped, mere inches away.  
  
Bickson was in the front, his scarlet hair tied back and brilliant in the sunlit water, his blue eyes locked onto Tidus' with a sense of derision that didn't need to be spoken to be heard. Graav's eyes, I noticed, were an even paler blue, and against his tanned skin and golden-brown hair, the effect was startling. They were the eyes of a shark.  
  
Without knowing why, I thought: something's wrong.  
  
And then I realized what it was and turned to catch Tidus' eye, panicking. We had been expecting Vilucha on forward. We had been counting on the fact that Vilucha would be on forward, and Bickson would be playing rear guard.  
  
But lightly treading water there in front of Botta was Balgerda, the Luca Goers' true right defensewoman, and she was smirking.  
  
"Where's Vilucha?!" I mouthed to Tidus.  
  
His eyes widened and I saw a trace of fear in them. "She's not here," he whispered back.  
  
Bickson ahem-ed, and we turned so we could see what he was saying. He was looking at me. "When you're done analyzing our starting lineup," he said, "I have something that belongs to you, green eyes."  
  
He was holding out my goggles.  
  
The water against my cheeks felt as if it had been turned to ice, and I realized my face must be burning red, although I didn't know if it was from embarassment or anger. He was still looking into my eyes. The feeling of my own heart beating faster against my chest made me furious, and I snatched the goggles away and jammed them onto my face. Instantly, I felt myself calm down a little. The goggles were like a security blanket--behind them, I felt safe, impassive. Now, he--and the rest of them--had no idea where I was looking.  
  
I remembered his voice two nights earlier, on the roof. "Let them get to you--and then use that anger to win."  
  
He'd just handed me a present. With a cold smile, I shot past him to my position in right sphere. 


	24. Nap Shot 3

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Tension tension tension...think about this. If you sue me, I won't be able to post any more, and you'll never find out what happens! Wouldn't that suck?  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 24: Nap Shot 3  
  
**********  
  
Before the first blitzoff even made it out of the cannon, I knew Graav was going to grab it. I can only assume Tidus had some kind of allergy to ever getting the damn ball on the first blitzoff or something, because I'm pretty sure he didn't do it once the entire damn tournament.  
  
I floated around, watching and thinking things like, "of course I'll be right this time too; I'm always right" and hoping that the ball would get angry and decide to prove me wrong by landing in Tidus' hands. Apparently it didn't care, because it still moseyed on over to Graav. I cursed at it, but it didn't care much about that, either.  
  
Graav must've gotten up on the right side of the bed that morning, because he was feeling pretty cocky. He powered straight down the center of the sphere toward Keepa. Stupid move, Graavy-baby. Tidus, Letty and I all turned in on him and stopped him. He got a better grip on the ball and shot me a challenging look that every blitzer knows means "bring it on."  
  
I whirled into a Nap Tackle and slammed him hard on the shoulder with my foot. He looked a little woozy for a sec, but then his face cleared and he kicked the ball.  
  
This took us just a minute to figure out, because shooting the ball from centersphere with two defenders and a crappy shot stat is suicide. It was whizzing downsphere toward the goal when Tidus got a hand on it and handed it off to Letty.  
  
Letty immediately responded by pulling a Graav--that is, running the ball down the center of the sphere and bringing it straight to the goal only to be stopped by a horde of opposing team members, like he felt the need to deliver it to 'em or something. He had the gall to look surprised when he was surrounded by Graav, Doram, Balgerda, and Abus. I had to laugh.  
  
He broke Abus' tackle and tried to fire a pass off to Jassu, but Graav didn't even have to stretch to get it. The Goer center instantly swerved toward the left side of the field, and Tidus and I dove after him. He was still swimming, thinking he could get away with it, when I came up beside him and tapped him on the shoulder. Before he had a chance to think, I rushed him and grabbed the ball.  
  
Being slightly smarter than the members of the Strategically-Challenged-Lunkhead-Club- for-Men, I kept far to the left side of the sphere and then brought myself in. I was about halfway between their goal and centersphere when Doram and Balgerda stopped me, decked out in matching condescending smirks. How cute.  
  
I didn't even bother to break to them. Smiling back with as much acid in my lips as they had in theirs, I went straight into Nap Shot 3. Both of them hurled themselves inward at it at once, and I held my breath. But when they came out of their dives, the ball was still moving.  
  
Raudy reached for it, and I laughed to myself. He had to be nuts. For almost any decent goalie, letting the other team score is infinitely preferable to letting the other team knock you out and score repeatedly. My laughter died out right away when a glowing sphere flashed around him for just an instant, and then he zinged the ball back out to Doram.  
  
He was using Anti-Nap.  
  
*****  
  
This, I decided, was bad. But Anti-Nap doesn't work every time, so I figured that if I kept shooting at him, he'd eventually have to conk out on me. Then I could pull off another brilliant volley shot, or Letty would snag it on the rebound and send it hurtling straight into the goal.  
  
I figured this while in motion, chasing Doram into centersphere and catching her between Tidus and Letty. I managed to get the ball again, and this time the shot was unblocked.  
  
The sphere shield activated again, and with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I realized that Raudy was using Anti-Nap 2. There was no way in hell I could put him to sleep. I was screwed.  
  
I was still somewhere in the middle of the longest string of expletives I have ever uttered when Doram grabbed the ball on the rebound. Letty took it from her when I was about two-thirds of the way through, and I had just finished when he was stopped almost dead centersphere by Graav, Balgerda, and Bickson.  
  
Whoa. Bickson. I glanced at the clock, which had stopped at 2:29. Our defense had been asleep for most of that time, but Bickson was the only Goer who hadn't been in the action yet. Keeping your best forward outta the game is suicide--unless you have a plan.  
  
Of course, by the time we figured the plan out, it was already way the hell too late. Letty broke Balgerda's vicious tackle to his stomach, but he couldn't get the ball past Bickson.  
  
My current opponent and sometime flame was in the absolute center of the sphere, and I knew there was a shot coming. I caught Tidus' eye. He signaled to Letty and the three of us formed a triangle and closed in on the redheaded forward.  
  
He was looking confident, which is usually a bad sign. From our practices, I'd figured out that the best way to attack him was probably to slam directly into the center of his chest with my shoulder and hope to get him off-balance enough to knock him over. I hurled myself into him, and for an instant I half-expected his arms to close around me. But he didn't stop to have an in-game romantic moment, and he didn't fall over, either, and so I ended up sprawling past him. Tidus spun sideways at Bickson's stomach in a highly creative tackle we liked to call the "Screwdriver on Fast Forward," but Bickson was ready and ducked sideways.  
  
He closed his eyes for a second. At first glance, I figured he was just pausing to refocus himself and take aim, or maybe to catch his breath--at least figuratively.  
  
Then I saw the dark cloud forming around the blitzball in his hands, and my mouth opened in an O and an involuntary gasp.  
  
He shot the way he'd tried to teach me to do, with a lot of power and a very precise aim. Letty dove for the ball, but he never even had a chance. I watched the ball fly towards my goal in slow motion, the way you might see a bullet tear someone apart. Our defensemen were off doing something--either dealing with Graav or playing backgammon; neither would have made much difference--so I had a perfect view of Keepa as he reached a glove out for the ball. I saw, with stunning clarity, the instant of shock on his face before he was left hanging like a rag doll at the bottom of the goal.  
  
"Unbelievable!" Bobba screamed. "Bickson has just used Nap Shot 3!"  
  
*****  
  
Abus grabbed the ball as it bounced back off Keepa's glove and passed it easily to Bickson. By this time, our defense had showed up, but Botta and Jassu were as helpless as the rest of us. As Tidus started halfheartedly towards the enemy forward, said forward was two inches away from the goal. Floating over the body of the sleeping goalie, he let the ball go and poked it with one index finger. It hit the backboard with complete and perfect silence.  
  
*****  
  
Ever really, really, really wanted to scream? Yeah, that was the mental state I was in when I swam back to my position for the next blitzoff. Tidus automatically got the ball, but when he tried to pass it off to me Graav saw his chance and intercepted it. He dribbled it just long enough for Bickson to get back into position and then passed it.  
  
Bickson was in close now. This time, the Nap Shot didn't even touch Keepa's glove. It just went in.  
  
This time, I did scream, but nobody heard me. The halftime buzzer was ringing in my ears, the announcers were jabbering, and all I could think about was the fact that that bastard had stolen my heart and my shot in the same week, and it pissed me off. 


	25. Nap Pass 2

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
*waves one hand in a dismissive gesture* Meh. Lawyers scare me. Ahh, somebody please save me from the big scary people with the big words.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 25: Nap Pass 2  
  
**********  
  
Back in the locker room, I nearly broke the damn Golden Arm by slamming my fist so hard into my locker door that foreverafter it refused to close all the way.  
  
"Our ace in the hole!" Wakka groaned in total despair. He was sitting on the bench with his head in his hands. His red hair was all matted where he must have pulled at it in frustration while watching us on the sphere.  
  
Tidus was leaning against the wall, equally depressed. "Linna, you're the only one in the league who knows Nap Shot 3! How'd he learn it?"  
  
I was about to snap back that I had no idea, but then something flashed across my mind again. The first night. Practicing in the sphere. I'd shown him Nap Shot 3. The intensity on his face as he watched me.  
  
"Techcopy!" I moaned. The tile floor was cold as I sunk to my knees and buried my face in the bench. Tysh, tysh, tysh! "Oui eteud!" I hissed at myself. "Oui cdibet, ynnukyhd, ehcebet, byhtanehk eteud!" Finally I gave up on trying to control my rage and flung my goggles across the room. They hit Botta in the stomach and fell to the ground. No one picked them up.   
  
"You know what happened, Linna?" Tidus asked, crouching beside me and handing me a glass of water and two of the little blue pills that were keeping my ribs from hurting.  
  
I raised my face to look at him and reluctantly swallowed the pill. "We were practicing in the sphere the first night of the tournament. I showed him the shot. He must've Techcopied it." My fists clenched. "And then hid it, just waiting until he could use it on us! Cdibet cdibet cdibet!"  
  
"All right, time to calm down, ya?" Letty came over now. "Getting upset won't help now. We gotta figure out a way to deal with this."  
  
"Yeah," Botta wisecracked, still rubbing his stomach. "Let's get Keepa to sneak into the Goers' locker room and eat 'em."  
  
"Great. I like it. Why don't you go do that while the rest of us come up with something that might actually work?" Tidus suggested.  
  
"All right already." Botta grabbed Jassu and Keepa by their wrists and dragged them to the bench. Datto followed, sighing. Now we were all crowded in a circle on the benches, looking for all the world like members of a sewing circle or something--except for the stupid uniforms.  
  
"Now, oh fearless leader," Botta addressed Tidus, "What are we gonna do?"  
  
"Go down with the ship," offered Keepa. He had a doughnut. Somehow I doubted he cared much.  
  
"No!" Tidus smacked a fist into his palm. "Here's the situation: Bickson has basically turned himself into Linna--"  
  
"Yevon, that'd be butt-ugly," smirked Jassu. "He ain't got the body for that uniform."  
  
"--by copying her techs," Tidus finished, glaring. "That means Linna's Nap Shot's not gonna work. It also means that Keepa's gotta be on the lookout for Bickson's Nap Shot all the time, and the rest of us have to watch out for Nap Tackles and passes. Now, any suggestions on how we deal with this?"  
  
"Botta's suggestion was pretty good, brudda," Jassu put in. Glare from Tidus. The guard gave in and said, "Okay. You know Anti-Nap 2, dawg?"  
  
"Dawg" is not a word they teach you in English textbooks, so I figured this was a holdover from Ebonics, which was another foreign language that Jassu spoke and the rest of them didn't. He'd agreed to try to translate his words into English as long as I did, but both of us seemed to slip back into our native languages when we got upset or something.  
  
I figured "dawg" had to mean "goalie" and watched Keepa shake his head. "Nope," he answered. "Just Anti-Nap."  
  
"Good enough," decided Wakka. "That and Super Goalie and those Grip Gloves of yours oughtta work okay. But how are we supposedta get those two points back?"  
  
We all thought for a minute, and then Letty took his chin out of his hand and said slowly, "The most important thing is scoring, ya?" We all nodded in unison. "Remember what Wakka told you last year, brudda?"  
  
"Shoot like crazy?" Tidus asked.  
  
"Exactly! We gotta get in there and tear their goalie apart. I'm talkin' about an all-out offense. But we can take the pressure off of you guys too. Soon's we get the score tied, we go into defense..."  
  
"...and take it into overtime," I realized, lifting my face outta my arms for the first time.  
  
"And then all we have to do is score one more time and we've got it nailed!" Tidus finished. "I like it!"  
  
"Uhm, but isn't that what we tried to do yesterday?" asked Wakka.  
  
"Yeah, but this time it can work," Botta replied. "Jassu and I can keep the defense from gettin' too close to those three." He gestured at me, Tidus, and Letty. "They get in there and tie it up, and we'll handle that hotshot Bickson, right, buddy?"  
  
"Fo' shizzle," Jassu laughed, giving him a high-five. I blinked again and then gave up.  
  
"But Linna's gonna have trouble scorin' if her Nap Shot's blocked," Keepa said.  
  
There was silence for a second, and then Datto spoke up for the first time. "Using Nap Shot 3 will still boost her shot stat," he reminded us. "If she's got the HP and she's close enough, she should go for it." He was looking at me without malice for once, like maybe he'd figured out I wasn't out to get him.  
  
"So that's what we're gonna do?" Tidus asked, surveying the group. They all nodded. "Okay then. Let's grab some water and break while we've got a chance. Keepa, go change into a uniform with Anti-Nap on it. Rest of you guys--we've got five minutes. Make it count."  
  
I sighed and put my face back down again, reaping the endless therapeutic benefits of imagining myself slamming the ball so hard into Bickson that he'd fly outta the sphere and straight into the stands, maybe hitting whoever'd slammed me at the opening ceremonies for being Al Bhed. Okay, nevermind that Techcopying is not just a smart move but actually a pretty vital skill for a blitzer, and nevermind that if he'd been the one using Nap Shot 3 I probably would've done the same damn thing. I was not happy. In fact, I was extremely pissed off. I was gonna tear that moron limb from limb, starting with gouging out those sapphire eyes that drove me crazy. I was gonna pound him six feet into the ground and erect a plaque to mark the spot where the most arrogant blitzer in Spira was buried. I was gonna--  
  
"Ah, CRED!" I screamed, bolting up.  
  
Botta doubled over, laughing, letting the empty bucket fall from his hands. It clattered and rolled around on the tile floor and through the spreading puddle of icewater. I didn't even bother to ring out my freezing hair or get the chunks of ice off my back before I grabbed it and chucked it at him. I missed.  
  
"HaHA, you should see the look on your face!" he wheezed. "That was priceless! Wasn't it priceless, Keepa?"  
  
"Hm. Priceless." Keepa draped a towel over my neck. "You got water yet?"  
  
"About five gallons more than I needed." I rubbed the towel furiously over myself, trying to get the ice water off.  
  
"Sorry," Botta apologized, grinning. "You just looked so serious!"  
  
"Oh, she spazzin' out?" Jassu came back over. "Chill, Linna. You're gonna be okay. But you better get the rest of that ice outta your hair."  
  
I wrang my hair out and tried to scowl at them, but in a minute I was laughing as hard as they were.  
  
Tidus walked over and offered me a hand. "Linna? You ready to rock?"  
  
I grabbed his hand, pulled myself to my feet, and gave him a high-five. "Let's blitz."  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
tysh - damn   
  
cdibet - stupid  
  
"Oui eteud! Oui cdibet, ynnukyhd, ehcebet, byhtanehk eteud!" - "You idiot! You stupid, arrogant, insipid, pandering idiot!"  
  
cred - shit 


	26. Normal Shot

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
You're finally going to find out who wins the tournament! It's the moment you've all been waiting through 25 chapters for! Don't ruin it by suing me!  
  
Oh, and I own the MMDCSAFENTGK.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 26: Normal Shot  
  
**********  
  
"And we're back after halftime! The score is still Goers 2, Aurochs 0!"  
  
"It looks like this might be a quick game, Bobba. The Aurochs seem to be going down without a fight."  
  
"You want a fight?" I muttered through clenched teeth. "You're about to get one."  
  
*****  
  
The third blitzoff of the championship game went to an extremely angry, extremely motivated Tidus. He followed the gameplan of the MMDCSAFENTGK (Morons Motoring Down Center Sphere And Foolishly Expecting Not To Get Killed), but unlike Graav and Letty, he could get away with it--his endurance was higher than either of theirs, which was why we'd put him on center to begin with. Letty and I swept up the sides, keeping well within passing range. When Tidus had let Balgerda, Doram, and Graav's tackles bounce off him like they were nothing, he passed the ball off to Letty.  
  
Letty and Raudy stared each other down for a while, and then Letty flipped over himself and sphere shot. The crowd cheered to see signs of life from the Aurochs. Raudy couldn't block it. It was really that simple.  
  
Next blitzoff, Graav made the stupid mistake of trying to break to rightsphere and get past a very perturbed Linna. I cannot stress enough how stupid it is to try to get past Linna when she's perturbed (just thinking about it makes me talk about myself in the third person).  
  
Of course, it wasn't stupid enough to allow me to grab the ball. I launched myself at him with a Nap Tackle, but I was moving too quickly to put enough power behind the tackle. As he fired the pass off to Abus, I consoled myself with the fact that he'd definitely have a bruise the next morning where I'd slammed the Golden Arm into his shoulder.  
  
Abus cut down the side of the sphere and ran smack into Botta, who had been waiting for this moment for the entire game and cheerfully snatched the ball, probably still psyched about the fact that he wasn't on the bench. If he'd been on land, the defenseman would have skipped all the way to centersphere, where he was stopped by Doram and Graav, who was still wincing every time he rotated his shoulder. This was probably part of the reason he couldn't do much when Botta, still grinning like a little kid, reluctantly passed the ball to Tidus. Doram didn't even have her heart in the block--maybe she was grouchy and feeling overshadowed by Balgerda or something, I didn't know.  
  
Balgerda, for her part, was wandering in lazy circles around her goal, occasionally stopping to have a conversation with Raudy or examine her nails, which were manicured. If she still had manicured nails, she obviously hadn't planned on being here. Had they decided to put her in early after seeing how well we'd played?  
  
She was pretty much alone on that side of the sphere--Letty and I had been kinda sitting around as well up there, but all the Goer opposition was still centersphere. Doram was yelling at Botta, Botta was still being unfailingly cheerful, and Jassu was sneaking up behind her, pulling one of her girlish pigtails, and running. Perfect. They were distracting both the Goers and the fans. Just what we needed.  
  
While all this was going on, Tidus was approaching Balgerda. He might have gotten past her with a couple more seconds, but she whirled on him and got ready for a tackle. Very calmly, he punched the ball straight into her face and Jecht Shot it on the rebound.  
  
This time I almost felt bad for Raudy. He knew, before he even reached for it, that there was no way he could stop that shot, but he still had to try. So he dove so far he nearly ran into the side of the goal and had to shoot out both hands to stop himself, but...well, c'mon, it was a Jecht Shot. From somewhere up in the stands, the loudest, most piercing whistle I've ever heard shot down at us and I could make out the form of the summoner as she leapt to her feet.  
  
I wondered what Tidus was thinking as he swam back to his position for the next blitzoff.  
  
*****  
  
The scoreboard read 2-2. The Goers were tense. The Aurochs were tense. The announcers were ecstatic. The fans were crazy. I personally wasn't wasting my energy on any more tension than necessary right now. All I had to do now was sink one more shot.  
  
Finally, finally, Graav tried to take the ball in a direction other than his stupid white-bread-straight-down-the-middle approach, but he'd figured it out too late. Now all five of us were on defense, and he was completely engulfed by Aurochs before ten seconds had passed. The clock was now on 4:03. Another minute to go.  
  
Botta was still in a good mood when he very politely relieved Graav of the blitzball and dribbled it around for a while before finally surrendering it to Bickson, who had spent most of the second half thus far drifting. His presence meant that they were going to try to score.  
  
I caught Tidus' eye, and he signaled for a flat-out defensive block. He, Jassu and I were close enough to try to slam the ball down. Again, I didn't make too much of an effort--shots take up time, which was what we wanted, and the only thing we really had to do was make sure that the ball didn't have enough power left to score when it reached the goal. Keepa's Anti-Nap should do the rest. We hoped.  
  
Jassu couldn't get a hand on it, but Tidus and I each wrapped our fingers around that ball, and it was moving pretty slowly by the time it reached Keepa. Steeling himself, he reached out and grabbed it.  
  
The white spherical shield flared up around him, and he sent the ball whizzing back out into the sphere to Jassu. The Anti-Nap had worked. We were still in the game. The Grand Auroch Master of Ebonics was dribbling when time ran out.  
  
"Annnnnnd the score is still tied at 2-2!" Bobba announced. "That means we're going into overtime, folks!"  
  
"This is unprecedented in a championship game, Bobba," Jimma said. He sounded like he'd calmed down significantly. Maybe someone up in the booth had dumped ice water on his head, too. "You know what this means. The game will continue until one team or the other scores. It's really going to come down to the wire here."  
  
He had no idea.  
  
*****  
  
We returned to the sphere pool long enough only to surface for air, and then we were back in the sphere for overtime. In a tournament, overtime keeps going until someone scores--or passes out from lack of oxygen. Drowning wasn't appealing to me, but winning was. It was time to play for keeps now.  
  
Tidus sliced the blitzball from the water cleanly and tucked it under his arm. He was making a hard run straight for the goal, a pretty risky move. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time, it didn't. He got slammed by Graav and Doram, who was still looking irrationally angry about having her hair pulled and calmed down only slightly when she had the ball in her mitts. I couldn't block her as she passed me, but Botta and I caught her when she was halfway into our side of the sphere. My tackle barely phased her; it was Botta who grabbed the ball and cut across our turf to the far left edge of the sphere, where he passed to Jassu. Jassu was already in the middle of the sphere on the far left, and he was looking for an opening to get the ball to Tidus again when he ran smack into Balgerda. She took a break from examining her nails long enough to take the ball from him.  
  
You just don't let a rear guard with a manicure take your blitzball away from you. It isn't right. Immediately, I decided I had to stop her at all costs and propelled myself toward her side of the sphere, but Doram had made it her mission to block me at every turn. This was bad, because the Goer defensewoman with the polished fingernails got a beautiful pass through to Bickson. *This* was REALLY bad, because the Goer forward with the targets on his shoulders started making a dash for the goal.  
  
Tidus, Botta, and I all bolted towards Keepa. Doram was still trying to block me, but I finally dove underneath her and shot out behind her back, repeating Rin's instructions for the most efficient way to flutter-kick in my head. Waste as little effort as possible. Get the most power out of every stroke. Just fly.  
  
Doram charged after me, just waiting to take a pass if Bickson got in trouble. I could block her from getting it, but I couldn't get close enough to the captain of the Goers to break his shot. Tidus and Botta were on their own up there. I heard the sharp screech of metal and realized I'd been trying to crack my knuckles inside the Golden Arm, so I had to settle for clenching my fists instead. Come on, come on, come on, guys, you can block it, you gotta block it, come onnnnn...  
  
Of course, Bickson didn't try to go for a pass. He aimed for the side of the goal on the far right of the sphere and slammed a Nap Shot 3 toward it. Botta leapt up and planted a hand firmly on it, but he couldn't stop it. This one was up to Tidus.  
  
The fire flared up in his blue eyes and he threw his whole weight into the block. At first I thought the ball had hit him in the stomach, but when he turned I could see he'd blocked it with the Golden Arm--and grabbed it. Now he was streaking towards me, catching my eye, getting me ready to take the pass.  
  
I got the message and turned back to make my run for the goal. Doram was still right behind me, though. Turning back to Tidus, I made a quick tossing gesture with my left hand and then shook my head almost imperceptibly, praying he'd get the message we'd worked out during practice: fake a pass.  
  
He got it and drew back his arm to whip out an imaginary pass. I turned my body away from Doram and pretended to catch it. She was watching me, not him, and she immediately lunged for me. I just managed to dance away from her tackle and get by her, and now Tidus and I were running side by side up to the goal.  
  
Doram was still spinning from the momentum of her tackle. Letty was confronting Abus and Balgerda. Graav was blocked by Jassu and Botta. Tidus was coming toward me with the ball. It was now or never.  
  
He passed the ball and I grabbed it, flipping to absorb the impact. I was directly in front of the goal now and well within shooting range. It looked like I was going to have a clear shot right into the goal.  
  
And then Bickson popped up right in front of me.  
  
He must have been following Tidus from the opposite goal and now he was floating in defender's stance in front of me, leaving me facing off against the one person I'd never been able to get a shot past. In another few seconds, the other Goers would be right up there and I wouldn't have a chance. This was my only shot.  
  
"Drec uha'c vun oui, Sus," I whispered as I shot straight toward the heart of the goal.  
  
Bickson lunged--  
  
--and missed!  
  
The ball thundered past him, spinning in a wild spiral. The Golden Arm was doing its work. If I had anything to believe in, I would have been praying.  
  
Raudy threw himself at the ball, and I almost screamed as his fingers strained to reach it...  
  
...falling just an inch short as the ball rocked the backboard and went in.  
  
*****  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen," Jimma screamed, "the winners of the Yevon Cup Tournament are the BESAID AUROCHS!"  
  
"Hah," I said to Bickson through the ensuing chaos. "I finally scored on you."  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Drec uha'c vun oui, Sus." - "This one's for you, Mom." 


	27. Nap Pass 3

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I assume there are closing ceremonies in blitzball tournaments, but if there aren't, maybe I own them.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 27: Nap Pass 3  
  
**********  
  
Tidus shot towards me and I wrapped my arms around him, screaming from pure adrenaline. Letty was on us next, and then Botta and Jassu and finally Keepa, until we were all piled up centersphere in a massive group hug, cheering whatever was left of the air in our lungs out.  
  
"We did it! We did it!" Botta cried. "We won the tournament twice in a row!"  
  
"And we're gonna do it every year from now on, dawg!" yelled Jassu (Briefly, I wondered why he was calling Botta a "goalie," but I was too psyched to worry about it for long).  
  
"Just like I told you," Tidus reminded us. "When the Aurochs play, we play to win!"  
  
Over his shoulder I could see our section of the stands. The summoner was whistling so loudly I thought she might collapse from lack of oxygen, and behind her were Rikku and the other guardians. Miyu was in the front row, jumping up and down in her excitement. Over her head, she'd hoisted a handmade sign that read "Good luck, Linna!" A few rows behind her, I found Rin and the Psyches. They were yelling something over and over again, and it took me a moment to realize that it was "Luhknydimydeuhc!" For a second, I could have sworn I picked out Mom's face in the crowd, but maybe it was just a trick of the water and the sunlight.  
  
*****  
  
Tidus and the others carried me out of the sphere on their shoulders, much to my massive embarassment--finally Botta threatened to feed my goggles to Keepa if I didn't stop thrashing around, so I gave up and let them. In the locker room, Wakka was ecstatic, and he gave all of us the most bone-crunching hugs ever, even lifting me off the ground and spinning me around. Even Datto eventually gave me a high-five.  
  
This time nobody, but nobody, complained when I swiped all the hot water (victory has its perks, after all, and since I still had the Golden Arm enhancing my already-killer right hook, they all started to warm up to the chivalric idea of "Ladies first" pretty quickly), and by the time I got out the locker room was smothered in "Congratulations, Aurochs!" banners. Tidus was modestly accepting gobs of praise from the summoner and her guardians, blushing a little at the attention from the earnest girl with her single swirled eye. In the back of my mind, I hoped Aniki and the others would get this one and stop her. Yuna, with her honest, heartfelt smile and obvious crush on the blitz captain, didn't deserve to die. Neither did that other young man with his kid brothers, or even the snooty woman in the dominatrix outfit. Seeing Yuna standing there laughing so happily brought it all home to me for the first time: in a few months, she would never smile again. She'd never go to sleep in her own bed again, or feel the sand squish up between her toes on the beach, or whistle at one of Tidus' blitzball games.  
  
Unless we could save her.  
  
*****  
  
Of course, we were instantly mobbed the second we left the locker room. A sea of cameras and microphones flooded the hallway until I started to wonder if a) this was acceptable under the Luca fire code, and b) it would be considered reasonable force if I used blitzball tackles to get through. I had just decided that it would be and was preparing myself for the charge when Yuna calmly stepped in front of me, turned to one of the reporters and said, "Excuse me, but could my friends and I get through?"  
  
"That's right!" Tidus echoed gleefully. "She's a summoner! You'd better let us through now!"  
  
Immediately, the journalistic waters parted and we all made our way out into the lobby. There even more reporters were lurking, and they were throwing questions at me like crazy.  
  
"This is your first win here, Linna. How's it feel?"  
  
I was suddenly, irrationally terrified that I'd make a terrible grammatical error on national television. "It feels great!" I replied simply.  
  
"Were you at all worried during the game?"  
  
"A little, yeah. Okay, I was almost biting my nails through my gloves for a sec there. But we pulled it off, you know?"  
  
"Come on, Linna, we gotta get out there! The closing ceremonies are gonna start soon!" Letty called.  
  
I flashed a sweet smile for the cameras. "Gotta go. Call my agent, we'll do lunch sometime." I had no idea what that meant, but it was something people said in movies when they wanted to get away from pushy people with cameras. It satisfied them (apparently they didn't realize that I didn't actually have an agent) enough to let me go, and I joined the Auroch herd making the grand procession up into the top box of the stadium.  
  
My eyes picked it out long before anything else. The afternoon light was just starting to deepen into orange, and in those first edges of the sunset, it was shining like a second sun. I knew why: it was solid crystal, and it held those rays of sunlight as if it had been made to collect them. This was the thing I'd dreamed about every night since my mother had given me her ultimatum ten years before. This was the Yevon Cup.  
  
So it was kind of ironic that a non-Yevonite would be on the team that took it home, but hey, I wasn't complaining. They could call it whatever they wanted, as long as it was ours.  
  
*****  
  
As closing ceremonies go, pretty much the whole thing was actually really, really boring. Some old geezer, who Keepa whispered to me was Maester Mika--like I cared--made a long speech about how no one was really a loser when they were playing for the glory of Spira, and then some other maester called Kinoc made another one about how important it was to play blitzball to keep our spirits up in the wake of tragedies like Operation Mi'ihen. That one, I reflected bitterly as I thought about the last time I'd seen two of my fellow street rats, I could agree with. The other maesters, a hefty Ronso named Kelk and the infamous half-Guado, half-human Seymour (who, for the record, I immediately disliked), weren't talking too much. Seymour seemed pretty disgusted by the whole thing--maybe the blitzers beat him up when he was in school or something. He spent most of his time drumming his looooong fingernails on his cheek and staring at Yuna. Eugggh.  
  
We were sitting just behind the box with the Psyches and the Goers, who were waiting to accept their prizes as well. Nimrook and I translated the maesters' speeches as best as we could into Al Bhed for the Psyches. They were as unimpressed as I was. They were feeling decent about the consolation match, though, and I had a brief conversation with Eigaar and Blappa about scoring techniques.  
  
The Goers were definitely more subdued than the Al Bhed team. Balgerda was *still* looking at her nails constantly, and every few minutes she paused to drum them on her kneecap in impatience. Graav was ranting in a clearly audible tone of voice to Abus about the brutal way they'd been robbed of their victory, as if blocking was an illegal tactic that the Goers would never indulge in or something. Vilucha, the outsider, was looking out at the crowd. Bickson was totally silent, slumped on the edge of the bench and leaning on his knees like a little kid.  
  
Cl-ll-ll-llick, went Balgerda's nails. Cl-ll-ll-llick.  
  
Finally, after about an eternity and a half, Maester Geezer intoned, "And now...we will present the victorious with their due rewards. Would the...Al Bhed Psyches please come forward?"  
  
Judda's eyes narrowed behind the clear lenses of her goggles. "Fro tuac ra racedyda pavuna ra cyoc uin hysa?"  
  
"Yhudran desa, Judda. E pameaja dryd fyc uin lia," Nimrook said, standing up and stepping out onto the balcony. Grudgingly, Judda and the others got to their feet and followed.  
  
Almost all of the fans clapped politely as Nimrook graciously accepted the third-place prize--a pair of Grip Gloves--and made a brief statement of thanks in flawless English. Even the few Al Bhed in the audience, however, didn't dare to cheer. Alone in the crowd, Rin stood up to applaud, and I could see the ripple of distaste in the stands around him. I cursed to myself, but no one was listening. We still had a long way to go.  
  
The Psyches returned back to their bench behind the balcony and the duo of obnoxious Yevonite clergy members continued the excruciatingly slow crush through the prizes. "In second place, we have the Luca Goers," Maester Pudgy continued.  
  
Graav jumped up immediately, and the others followed a few beats behind. Bickson had to be nudged repeatedly by Raudy before he sighed, stood up, and walked out to accept his prize, a Goer uniform equipped with Anti-Nap 2.  
  
The stadium rang with ear-splittingly high-pitched fangirl screams. The Goers' captain raised his hands for silence, and then said, "We couldn't do it this year, Luca, but you can look forward to the day when that cup'll be ours again. Thanks for everything. We'll see you next season!" More fangirl screams. The Goers preened for a few more minutes and then shuffled back into the dark back of the balcony. Bickson went back to sulking.  
  
"And now," announced Mika, "it is with great pride and pleasure that I present to you the champions of this year's Yevon Cup tournament--the Besaid Aurochs!"  
  
The cheers rose to a fever pitch. Tidus shot to his feet, grinning. I was right behind him. Jassu stuck out his hand for a mass high-five, and the six of us walked out onto the balcony, where our captain reached out his arms for the shining crystal cup.  
  
He closed his eyes in satisfaction as it touched his hands. "See?" he murmured to it. "I told you I'd be back to get you in a couple days." Remembering his adoring public, he grabbed the microphone and said, "Hey, guys, we did it again. I guess we're not statistically unlucky anymore, huh?"  
  
After he'd passed it around to the whole team and we'd each bowed in turn to the two maesters and to the crowd, we turned to go back in. "Wait a moment," Kinoc stopped us. "There's one more prize we have to give out. Every season, an award is also given to the top scorer. This year, that most valuable player is a member of the winning team, the Besaid Aurochs. Linna, please accept this."  
  
He was holding out a Megalixer. I was standing there, half-frozen, when Jassu gave me a little push and I stumbled forward to accept my prize. The bottle was thrust into my hands and the four maesters of Yevon and I exchanged bows. Still startled, I looked out into the stadium at the massive crowd beneath me, heard their voices shouting my name. Involuntarily, my eyes fell on the Al Bhed section of the stands.  
  
I saw Rin again, alone in the center of the stands. I felt the eyes of the Psyches behind me boring into my back. I looked at an entire grandstand full of Al Bhed, watching me, and I thought about Naaga, her friends gathered around the sphere in our apartment, her saying, "That's my sister!"  
  
I took a deep breath and whipped my goggles off.  
  
The huge sphere monitors were holding a closeup on my face. I knew there were at least four of them in the arena alone. In the lobby, in the bar, and all across Spira, the world was seeing that the star forward of the Aurochs had green eyes.  
  
A gasp rippled through the crowd, and, alone again, Rin leapt to his feet on the bench and raised his fists over his head in a gesture of victory. Behind me, I heard motion, and on the sphere cameras, I could see Nimrook standing as well. His eyes were startlingly green against his darker skin, and I realized that he'd thrown his goggles on the ground. As I watched, Lakkam cast hers off and joined her captain on the bench. Then Berrik, Blappa, Judda, and finally Eigaar followed suit. When I looked back into the stands, I saw the entire Al Bhed section surging to its feet in a massive wave.  
  
Then, suddenly, Tidus thrust the cup into my arms. I stood on the balcony, staring down at the thousands of cheering fans and feeling the weight of that crystal cup, and something made me turn back to the inside balcony.  
  
The Psyches were standing on their bench, applauding. The Goers were still looking depressed. But in the center of the room stood Bickson, staring at me. As I watched, he slowly bent into the bow of the blitzball victory symbol. He came up smiling.  
  
I gave him a sharp nod and then turned back to raise the shining trophy over my head. The crowd cheered once again. Above me, the crystal reflected the now-purple rays of dying sunlight and shot them out over the stadium. When I looked up, I saw my own reflection in the bottom of the cup, staring back at me with spiraled green eyes.  
  
"E tet ed, Sus," I whispered.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
luhknydimydeuhc - congratulations  
  
"Fro tuac ra racedyda pavuna ra cyoc uin hysa?" - "Why does he hesitate before he says our name?"  
  
"Yhudran desa, Judda. E pameaja dryd fyc uin lia." - "Another time, Judda. I believe that was our cue."  
  
"E tet ed, Sus." - "I did it, Mom." 


	28. Anti Venom 2

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I still own everything I owned earlier, and I still don't own everything I didn't own earlier. Except now I own a Rinoa necklace. Yay!  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 28: Anti-Venom 2  
  
**********  
  
The Besaid fans gathered around in a huge crowd as soon as we got out into the fresh night air. A warm breeze was blowing in off the sea, and I was feeling good. It took a long time for all of us to finally reach the bar, slowly making our way through a forest of congratulations, hugs, back-slaps, high-fives, and bows. After the Besaiders came the Al Bhed, and after the Al Bhed came the reporters, and once I was through them I saw Miyu standing near the small backstreet that led to the bar, smiling.  
  
"Linna, you have done it! I'm so thrilled for you!" she cried, enfolding me in an enthusiastic hug that for once I didn't mind. It was a night for celebration.  
  
"I wanted to thank you," I told her. "I saw the sign."  
  
"I thought it might help if you knew we were cheering for you. Oh, you're going to be the best blitzer ever, Linna! You can do it!"  
  
"Is everyone already inside?" I asked, trying to deflect the praise.  
  
She nodded. "Yes. They are merely waiting on you and the other Aurochs. Your normal seats at the bar have been reserved. Please stop by our table if you can."  
  
"Will do," I replied, and she headed back inside.  
  
The rest of the Aurochs straggled in to catch up to me. "Come on, what are we standing out here for?!" demanded Jassu. "Let's get in there and drink, ya?"  
  
"You mean 'accept praise and adoration from the fans,'" Letty corrected him with a grin.  
  
"The fans? How 'bout the ladies?" Botta joked.  
  
"Forget that! I bet there's a special on ribs tonight." Keepa was rubbing his stomach.  
  
We all laughed the way you do when someone's being an idiot in their own little characteristic way and you're in such a good mood that you don't get annoyed, and then Tidus said, "All right, let's go."  
  
I opened the door the way Naaga does--crack it open just an inch until everyone looks, then throw it almost off its hinges and barge into the room. As soon they saw us standing in the doorway, the crowd at the bar cheered wildly and cleared off to make room. Drinks started splashing on the counter from all sides--I snagged a technicolor liquid that looked like my strawberry daquiri. They'd even remembered the umbrella.  
  
I'd thought the bar was crowded before, but it seemed like now half of Luca had to be in it. The Beasts were in their usual corner. Directly across the room from them were the Fangs. The Psyches had a table not far from the bar, next to the Glories, where Miyu was sitting. Finally, the Goers were situated on the right side of the entrance. The noise was almost deafening, with the members of each team talking amongst themselves. Even the losers' tables had an air of festivity that fit in with the atmosphere of the whole city tonight. I could hear music coming from the streets.  
  
"You, young lady," came a gruff voice behind me, "must have been eating the cafeteria's 'energy food.'" It was Vuroja, the Old Man, and he slapped me on the back. "Congratulations, eh?"  
  
"Thanks, Vuroja...uhm, sir," I stuttered.  
  
"You keep it up, hear? You might be around as long as me."  
  
"Ahh, you'll still be here when I'm long gone," I joked. "But I'd better see you back here next year, all right? I still owe you a candy bar."  
  
"It's a deal, then!" he chuckled, slapped me on the back one more time, and then walked back to his table, where Kulukan and Isken were in a slightly drunk argument about whether or not they were drunk.  
  
"The Old Man noticed you," Tidus commented approvingly when he was out of earshot.  
  
"Yeah. Kinda scary, huh?"  
  
"It means you got talent. That's what Wakka told me when he stopped to talk to me last year."  
  
"Thanks." I took another swig of my daquiri and asked, "So, where are you headed?"  
  
"Yuna had an appointment to see Seymour about two weeks ago. We were going to skip the tournament, but after we ran into you, Wakka and I decided that we had enough time to spare to come back to Luca for a few days. We'll leave for Macalania Temple tomorrow."  
  
"What does Seymour want from Yuna?" I wanted to know.  
  
Tidus' face grew dark and he chugged his drink down. "He wants to marry her."  
  
"And that's bad, right?"  
  
"Yes! I don't like that guy. And I don't think Yuna should have to marry him if she doesn't love him just because it would cheer people up. That's what blitz is for!"  
  
"Translation: you like her," I said.  
  
He shrunk a little. "No. Okay, well...yeah. Maybe just a little."  
  
"You tell her?"  
  
"I can't...oh, forget it, I don't want to talk about it. Anyway, I'm her guardian and I have to go with her until she summons the Final Aeon and defeats Sin."  
  
There was silence for a moment, and I realized that I was staring at him. Quietly, I asked, "But if you care about her, why would you want her to get the Final Aeon?"  
  
"Look, I know it'll be hard, but the other guardians and I will be around to make sure she's okay. And when Sin's gone, we'll come back and win all the tournaments!"  
  
He doesn't know, I realized. He doesn't know that the Final Summoning will kill her. I felt like I should tell him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead, I said, "I'll probably head back to Home for a while."  
  
"Actually..." Tidus looked at me. "Is there any way you could come to the office before you leave tomorrow morning? I want to talk to you about this league season."  
  
"Sure thing, boss."  
  
He grinned at me, then addressed the team. "All right, now I know last year a couple of you guys wanted to know about that shot, right?"  
  
"Yeah, definitely," Letty replied, speaking for all of us.  
  
"Then follow me, and I will teach you the mysteries of the Jecht Shot."  
  
Grudgingly, I abandoned my daquiri and slid off the bar stool. On my way towards the door, I passed the Glories' table and remembered that Miyu had asked me to stop by. I was about to go over when I heard Nav say, "So your Home...it is in the desert, nyah?"  
  
"Yes," Nimrook answered. I registered the voice before I matched it with the face of the Psyches' goalie, who was sitting with the Guado team. The two captains seemed to be having an earnest discussion, which was strange. Even stranger was the fact that they sounded like they were talking about Home. I hung back by the door, looking casually at the sphere over the counter so I could listen to what they were saying.  
  
"Do you have any underground passages, things like that?" Nav was asking.  
  
Nimrook's tone was suspicious. "Why would that interest you?"  
  
"Hah! Merely a question! Guadosalam has many such places. I wondered if the Home of the Al Bhed is similar. It might help to know that when I am the leader of Spira, nyah?"  
  
The way he punctuated every question with "nyah" was really starting to get on my nerves, similar to the way Jimma and Bobba used each other's names in almost every statement. Nimrook seemed to be getting sick of it too, because I heard the sound of him starting to stand up and then a mug being plunked on the table in front of him. He sat back down. I glanced quickly over and saw him take a long drink.  
  
"So," Nav started when the other captain had finished his sip, "what do you think about the disappearance of all these summoners?"  
  
They'd stopped talking about anything that interested me. I shrugged and followed the other guys outside. Maybe I'd stop by when they weren't so busy.  
  
*****  
  
We went outside into the square to get a little more room, and a miscellaneous crowd of blitzers followed to watch the spectacle.  
  
"Okay," Tidus began, clearing himself some space in the center of the circle. "My old man came up with this, but it's really easy to do. First, you gotta start with a rebound off the goal." He demonstrated a kick and then a punch. "Or," he grinned, "you can bounce the ball off a couple of the losers trying to block you. Once you do that, you go into a long spin, like this, and then you just kick! See?"  
  
We didn't see. He did the move again, slower, and then tossed the ball up into the circle. Letty grabbed it and leapt straight up into the air, spinning like a top. About two seconds later, he crashed back down to earth, looking a little dizzy. Then Botta tried. Soon all of us were jumping up and down, spinning like complete lunatics and having the time of our lives. The people in the streets must've thought we were nuts.  
  
Miyu came out after a while and doubled over laughing. Instantly, I decided this was something she was absolutely not allowed to miss and dragged her into the circle of Jecht Shooters. She stopped laughing and got all shy, but when she'd tugged her mask into place and actually gave it a try she was the first one to even get close, leading Jassu to make a crack about goalies who had beginner's luck. None of us ever quite mastered it, but by the time Tidus finally laughingly gave up on us, we all had a reasonably bad Tidus imitation down.  
  
It was midnight by the time I finally left for the stadium.  
  
*****  
  
Against the darkness of the ocean, the arena looked lonely now. The sphere had been drained. I wasn't even sure why I was going, since there was no place to practice and, really, no reason to practice now that the tournament was over. I thought I might as well just look, and then I'd head back to the Cafe or maybe to one of the clubs or something.  
  
He was leaning against the wall, waiting for me.  
  
"Hey, green eyes," he said softly, cracking half a smile. "I was hoping you'd show up."  
  
"Hey, Bickson," I replied with just a little ice. "I keep you waiting long?"  
  
"I would've waited a lot longer." He shrugged and started walking. Aimlessly, I followed.  
  
"So, good game today," he said after a while. We were walking out toward dock three and the back entrance of the stadium, where the fire escape was.  
  
"Yeah, you too. Can't believe I let you get away with using Nap Shot 3, though. Where did you get off with that one?" I was trying to keep from exploding at him, but it wasn't working very well.  
  
"Look," he said, jamming the key sphere into the back door and yanking it open, "I know it was a lousy thing to do. If it's any comfort to you, I stared at the ceiling for a long time last night trying to decide whether I should try it or not. But after losing last year's tournament...they were counting on me to do everything I could to try to win, you know?"  
  
"Including backstabbing?" I asked skeptically. The heels of my boots pounded on the cement steps.  
  
"If that's what it took. You know our reputation. We're not really known for our social graces." He was ahead of me, his footsteps as angry as mine. I wished I could see his face. "I don't think I'll ever use it again. We all know how well it worked." His laugh was rueful.  
  
"Is that supposed to be an excuse?"  
  
He was at the top now, and he whirled to stare down at me. "No. If you want an excuse, I don't have one. Except that what happened to all those people I stepped on and over to get here-- it's happening to me, too. I got too arrogant. I thought I was invincible. And you showed up, and I figured you'd be a pushover, and then you slammed past me in front of a couple thousand fans. And there was nothing I could do about it." The door opened and then shut behind him.  
  
I reached the top, opened the door, and walked out onto the roof. Bickson was standing silhouetted against the Luca skyline on the edge, his back to me.  
  
"You're the best, Linna," he said, so quietly I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or himself. "You're not following your mother's dream. You're living it."  
  
"Bickson..." I began.  
  
"And tomorrow morning you'll be back on a boat to Besaid or Bikanel or wherever the hell you're going, and you'll have wasted your last night in Luca getting bitched out by a bitter ass like me. You can take off if you like. I've said what I wanted to say."  
  
I watched him for a few moments, and then I slipped my goggles off. "Personally," I said softly, letting them drop on the concrete, "I can't think of a better way to waste my last night."  
  
He turned to me, and then he was in my arms and his lips were on mine and our anger was slowly draining away. We stood like that a long time, just holding each other.  
  
Finally, he moved and asked, "Where *are* you going, green eyes?"  
  
I sat down in the center of the roof and waited until he followed me before replying, "I'll go back Home for a few weeks. Just a little vacation, time to see my sister and deal with the bill collectors. After that...dunno. If Tidus wants me to stay on the team, I'll probably take the first few games off and then come back for game four or something. If not, maybe I'll try to do some traveling, see Spira while there's still some of it that hasn't been destroyed by Sin."  
  
"And then...?" he prompted.  
  
I looked at him, choosing my words carefully. "And then...if you want me to...I'll come back."  
  
He put his arms around me, leaning my head against his shoulder as we gazed out at the most beautiful sight in all of Spira. "I'll be waiting for you, green eyes," he whispered. 


	29. Grip Gloves

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
You've read...what? 28 of these already? Okay, that's probably enough chances for you to see my brilliant sense of humor in a space of three lines. Just read the fic already.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 29: Grip Gloves  
  
**********  
  
The alarm clock didn't ring on my last morning in Luca, but I got up too early anyway--conditioned response. As soon as I gained consciousness, I knew that if I wanted to see the sun rise over the city, this was my last chance, and I got up and went out on the balcony. I'm usually not sentimental about things like that, but...well, you know. It had been a crazy five days.  
  
My feet made slapping sounds on the patio as I stepped out and slid the door behind me. It was still dark, and I leaned against the railing to watch the first edges of the sun surface over the sea, casting a pale pink shadow on the waves. Damn, I hadn't gone to the beach once.  
  
But then again, I reflected, thinking of my words to Bickson the night before, there would be plenty of time to catch the Lucan waves.  
  
"Good morning, Linna," Miyu called softly. I turned to see her standing on her balcony, a long white nightgown wrapped around her. It was the first time I'd seen her in anything other than her Crusader uniform (I'd honestly figured maybe she slept in it), and the effect of seeing the dark hair curling around her shoulders and the face beneath the severe mask reminded me that she really couldn't be much older than I was.  
  
"Hey, Miyu. Come out for one last chance at seeing the sunrise?" I asked.  
  
She smiled enigmatically and leaned against her own railing. "I've come out every morning. Once I went for a walk along the beach. The city looks so peaceful at dawn." Her voice trailed off as we watched the sun, golden-red, finally burst all the way above the horizon. "In these moments, it seems as if Sin has never existed," she said finally.  
  
The sun began to trace a slow arc into the sky. Gradually, the city caught the light and gleamed with pale pink and orange and yellow. A tiny breeze rippled through the streets, swaying the blitzball banners. They and the waves lapping at the shoreline were the only things that moved.  
  
"You're going back, aren't you?" I asked.  
  
"Yes. I must remain in Guadosalam to train for the upcoming league season, and...I could never leave the Farplane.  
  
"Also," she said after a time, "I must fight. Operation Mi'ihen failed, leaving your people and mine in disgrace, but we will redeem ourselves, Linna. Someday, Sin will be defeated forever. Until then, I will keep going on."  
  
How did we get into these serious discussions? I wondered as the dawn finally broke and cracked like an eggshell, opening up to the morning inside. The sky had turned blue. The sun was a brilliant gold.  
  
"This is what you're fighting for," I realized. "You and Yuna and the others. All of us. We're fighting to destroy Sin so we'll live to see another morning like this. And all the mornings after that one."  
  
"Yes." We were quiet. Then she turned to me and smiled. "But until that day, we have to keep blitzing!"  
  
"Always nice to have an excuse." I gave her an air high-five and went inside to start packing.  
  
*****  
  
I checked out of the hotel nice and early, my gear bag slung over my shoulder (and the last of the funky green sports drinks zipped into the bottom pocket, a disappearing act that blitzers seem to be able to get away with). First, Miyu and I headed up to the cafeteria for one last breakfast. I sat at the Aurochs' table, where everyone except Tidus and Wakka was in a pretty good mood chatting about the upcoming season.  
  
"It's gonna be great," Keepa informed me through his toast--finally, now that the games were over, they'd started serving a decent breakfast--"Brudda says they might even be back by the time the league season's over." 'Brudda' was apparently their nickname for Tidus. When I tried to translate it into Al Bhed, the closest equivalent I could find was 'Aniki.'  
  
"If not, we'll still have a trophy to show 'em, right, dawgs?" Now Jassu was calling us all goalies. Aaaauuugh. I'd never get English.  
  
"Right. As soon as we get to Besaid, drop by, ya?" Letty said to me. "You're gonna need some help building a hut if you're gonna stay there. Until then, you'd be welcome to stay with me."  
  
"How come Letty gets all the girls?" Botta complained. "Don't listen to that nerd, Linna. My hut's bigger than his anyway."  
  
"Your hut sucks," Letty shot back brilliantly.  
  
"Dude, Botta, ya built the roof, like, sideways. One more storm and it'll cave in on that round head a'yours and you'll have to wear TWO bandaids on your nose." Jassu put his hands together and let them drop, pantomiming the cave-in of a roof.  
  
"Uhm, Jassu? Didn't Botta, uh, build YOUR roof too?" Keepa asked.  
  
"Shut up," replied the defenseman.  
  
"All right, all right, guys, fight over me later," I deadpanned. "I don't even know if I'm going to be staying in Besaid. Cred, I don't even know if I'm getting resigned for the season. I'm not going with you guys today, anyway. I got reservations on the 12:00 ferry for Bikanel."  
  
"Since when is there a ferry for Bikanel, huh?" Datto wanted to know.  
  
"Since about twenty minutes ago when the Psyches chartered it," I replied, buttering my own toast. "Before that, though, I gotta go hash out the deals with Brudda and Cap'n Wakka. I'm gonna go home for a few weeks, take a break, and then if I get resigned I'll be in Besaid after that, ya?" Cred. Now I was talking like them.  
  
Jassu asked, "So what are we supposed to do without you, Brudda, and Cap'n Wakka?"  
  
"Lose," I replied reasonably. They scowled. "I'm kidding, I'm *kidding.* All right already, no jokes for you guys. Seriously, just put Datto back in and bring Letty back to center, right? I'd better run; I'm already gonna be late."  
  
"Wait, wait, wait. Nobody leaves this table without a big ol' Auroch group hug," Botta announced, crunching my bones out in his best Wakka imitation. The other guys piled on, and it was a tribute to my breath-holding skills as a blitzer that I managed to avoid suffocation.  
  
*****  
  
"Grab a chair, Linna," offered Tidus as I slipped into the locker room office. By now, the smell of sweat was ingrained in the walls. Tysh, I was gonna miss this place. "Before we do anything else, you'll probably want this." He pushed an envelope across the table at me. I opened it and counted the bills. 3000 gil in all--900 for each of the three games plus a bonus. Not bad for three days' work.  
  
"We gotta get out of here same as you, so let's get to the point, ya?" Ahh, good old Wakka, always so succinct. "We wanna sign you for the next league season."  
  
"Wait, don't talk, lemme finish," Tidus said before I could get a word in edgewise. "Okay, it's a little more than that. Wakka and I are going off with Yuna on her pilgrimage, and we don't know when we're gonna be back."  
  
"Could be a while, ya know?" Wakka said cheerfully, as if he was talking about a picnic.  
  
"Yeah," agreed Tidus. "So we need someone to be captain while we're gone."  
  
"Uhm...?" I pointed to myself. They both nodded. "Boss, you know I'm flattered and all that, but...frankly...how can I say this in English...I know absolutely jackshit about running a blitzball team."  
  
"I kinda figured." Tidus rubbed the back of his head. "So here's the plan I came up with. While we were gone, Letty's been kind of running the practices anyway, but he really doesn't want to be the coach permanently."  
  
"Says he wants to have some kinda free time," grumbled Wakka.  
  
"So anyway, we figured we'd make him kind of acting coach for a little while. He could...show you the ropes, you know? And then, when you feel ready, you can take over," Tidus finished.  
  
"Uhhhmmmm..." The most commonly used word in my vocabulary in this conversation. "Sure!" I grinned finally. "One thing, though. I kinda wanted to head back Home for a couple weeks. Is there any way you could just sign me for part of the season or something?"  
  
"As cost-effective as that would be," Tidus sighed, "We can't sign you for future games. And since we're not gonna be around, the only thing we can really do is sign you for the entire season and pay you even for the games you don't play. That's how the other teams do it with reserve players and stuff. Besides, you're not complaining about the extra money, right?"  
  
"Not in the slightest." I stood up. "That all, then? I'd better start heading out. I really can't miss my boat."  
  
"Hey, Linna?" Wakka interrupted me. I stopped. "Thanks. Even if you are an Al Bhed, you still got a mean Nap Shot, ya know?"  
  
I smiled. "Thanks, man. Even if you are a snooty Yevonite, you still got a mean way with words." We clapped each other on the back in a jockish kind of way.  
  
"I'm the one who needs to thank you, boss," I said to Tidus when Wakka let me go. "This was my big break. You'd better come back when you're done giving Sin a piece of your mind, got it?"  
  
"Sure." He gave me a hug, too, and then I turned and headed out of the stadium and into the docks. I was trying not to look back. It wouldn't be long before I'd be back here again.  
  
*****  
  
I managed to catch Miyu's ferry just before it left and give her one last hug, with promises of letters and sphere pictures and get-togethers for lemonade, that kind of thing. She and the other Glories were heading back toward the south bank of the Moonflow, from which point they'd catch a Shoopuf and then hike to Guadosalam.  
  
Rin and the Psyches were already waiting onboard our tiny charter boat when I got there, and the Aurochs were standing on the dock to see us off before heading back to the ferry they were taking to Kilika with the Beasts. But I was still waiting for the one person I hoped I'd see again.  
  
The captain was about to pull up the ramp when he charged out to the dock, shoving his slipping bandana back into place. "Looking for someone, Bickson?" I called, vaulting over the side of the boat onto the dock to meet him. The captain protested, and I could just hear Rin's eyes rolling in their sockets, but I've always been a little bit of a showoff.  
  
"Yeah, some blitzer chick with green eyes. Real bombshell, and I hear she just won the Cup. You know her?"  
  
"I dunno. Does she hang around with an arrogant jerk with improbably red hair and pecs to die for?" I laughed.  
  
"That's the one." He caught me in his arms and brought his face close to mine. "You didn't think I'd let you run off without saying goodbye, did you?"  
  
"I could only hope," I replied with mock seriousness.  
  
"And sail away to all those tanned Al Bhed guys in a desert oasis. I know your tricks." He took something out of his pocket and put his arms around me. I felt something heavy drop onto my chest and hold, and when I looked down I saw that he'd hooked a locket around my neck. The outside was a brightly-painted Aurochs logo. When I opened it, I saw a picture of myself, Bickson and Miyu practicing in the sphere that first night. On the other side was a picture of the Luca skyline.  
  
"I got those copied and turned into pictures at the Sphere Theater," he told me.  
  
"A gift? That's sweet of you, Bickson. I didn't know you had it in you."  
  
"What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic." He pretended to swoon, then added, "Besides, it was on sale."  
  
The ferry whistle blew impatiently. "That's my cue," I said.  
  
"Mine too." He leaned in to kiss me. "Now get out of here, take your vacation."  
  
"It won't be half as sweet as knowing what I'm coming back to."  
  
I headed back up the gangplank and it folded up behind me. As we set sail, the Besaiders cheered. Yuna and Rikku both waved happily. Tidus raised the crystal Yevon Cup over his head in a salute to me, and the other Aurochs bowed. I bowed back and then waved. "See you soon," Bickson called playfully, blowing me a kiss.  
  
He had no idea how soon he'd see me again. 


	30. Pile Wither

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
PLEASE NOTE: This chapter, unlike all the others in this story, is rated R. It contains graphic violence and language, as well as mature themes that may be upsetting to children and other sensitive readers. It also contains mid-game spoilers for Final Fantasy X. I can't help you with the spoilers; however, if you are concerned about the content of this chapter, I urge you to skip it and proceed directly to part 31. What happened should be fairly obvious.  
  
Still here? All right. I own Kuinno, Ysamey, and Wamkytec, as well as various nameless "NPC"s.   
  
Author's Notes: This chapter contains extensive Al Bhed; however, because it's scattered, I have not included a complete conversation translation as I did in part 10. I've tried not to include superfluous Al Bhed, but I think I'll leave this as it is. Sorry for any inconvenience.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 30: Pile Wither  
  
**********  
  
The ferry trip took an entire day and night. I spent most of the time in the cabin, playing endless games of poker with the Psyches (it turned out innocent Lakkam was a shark at the card table and even Nimrook could curse when he lost badly enough), or out on deck, staring into the water. I was glad to see dry land by the time we reached Bikanel, but the stupid blowing sandstorms were annoying the crap out of me by the time we reached the center of the Sanubia Desert the next afternoon. Most of the local fiends left us alone, but more than once I had to pelt one of them with my trusty blitzball.  
  
So I was not in a good mood at all as we were getting closer to Home, and my thoughts were starting to center themselves more and more around crashing up to my apartment, throwing my junk on the floor and taking the longest shower ever to get all the sand and sweat off myself, and I was really hoping Naaga'd have some food ready.  
  
I was daydreaming food more and more the closer we got. Right now she'd be putting something in the oven to cook. Meat, definitely, something nice and juicy. I could smell it roasting...  
  
I inhaled. I was no longer daydreaming. There was smoke in the air, and it was real.  
  
"Rin," I screamed. "Home'c uh vena!"  
  
*****  
  
"Secc Linna, fryd yna oui--ur, hu. Ur, bmayca, hu." He gasped, and then he started running. I tore after him, my heart pounding.  
  
As we reached the top of the last dune standing between us and Home, I could see what was happening. Home, our beautiful Home, was in flames. The massive central tower was already burning, and smoke was pouring from several of the ten towers in the circle that surrounded it. Overhead, dozens of Zu, the vultures of the desert, were circling as if over a corpse.  
  
"Naaga'c rusa," I remembered, and all the color drained from my face. My sister was somewhere in the middle of that hell.  
  
I was not controlling my own body as I ran down that hill and threw myself at the door to the tower where our apartment was. Rin called out after me and tried to grab me, but I wrenched myself free and got inside. I couldn't risk taking the elevator, so I ran for the stairwell and took the stairs three at a time, stumbling in my haste. I could feel the heat getting stronger and stronger the higher I got, and I knew before long this tower, too, would be on fire.  
  
The thought only made me run faster.  
  
Halfway on my way up the stairs, I heard a huge booming noise, and an impact rocked the building. I screamed and dove for the nearest landing, covering my head with my arms. Suddenly, the scent of smoke was stronger, surrounding everything.  
  
I was running out of time. The tower had to be on fire now, and I knew the upper stories of the other buildings had been the first to be destroyed. Terror ripped through my chest as I realized that chances were I would never see the outside of this building again. I wanted to turn around and run. But I couldn't leave Naaga!  
  
And so I stuffed my fist in my mouth to keep myself from screaming and started running again.  
  
I couldn't get the door to our floor open fast enough--maybe my fingers were too tense--so I had to kick it in. Groping wildly through my bag, I found my key sphere and thrust it into the lock of my apartment door.  
  
The door was sticking. Frustrated, I rammed my shoulder into it until it gave. When it did, I realized why it hadn't opened: my little sister was lying unconscious in the doorway.  
  
Thick black smoke was pouring from the back room. As I watched, the flames sparked to my bed. I stared numbly as my pillows turned black and the comforter I'd had since I was a baby was reduced to ash, thinking: We have to get out now. I didn't even have time to get any clothes. There was nothing.  
  
No, cred! Naaga's stuffed Moogle. Mom and Dad had given it to her when she was born. In 16 years she'd never spent a night without it.  
  
"Oui eteud," half of my mind was screaming at me, "kad uid uv drana huf!" But my sister was about to lose everything else she'd ever owned. At least I could give her this--if I could find it.  
  
Crawling on hands and knees, I reached her bed, which had not yet caught. I clapped one hand to my face, covering my mouth and nose, and reached the other to grope around the pillow, trying to stay as low to the carpet as possible. My hand hit fabric and I yanked the Moogle down. Frantically, I zipped it into my bag, threw my bag over my shoulder, and picked up my unconscious sister in my arms.  
  
I looked up in time to see my beloved hydroponic plants crumble and turn to ashes. Their box melted and fell, misshapen, into the flames on my bed.  
  
I slapped Naaga's face lightly, but she didn't open her eyes. I couldn't wake her, and I couldn't feel her pulse through my gloves, and for one heart-stopping second I thought she was already dead. In a panic, I put my head against her chest and felt the shallow rise and fall of her breath. So she was still breathing, but I had to keep the smoke out of her lungs, or else she'd choke. I pawed through the nearest dresser drawer and pulled out a filmy pink nightdress Naaga'd bought once when she thought I wasn't looking. It'd have to work. I held it loosely over her face to try to filter out the smoke and ran back towards the stairs. As I did, the fire spread to her bed and the room was engulfed in flames. The doorway collapsed behind me, glowing red. I didn't look back again.  
  
I cried from fear and exhaustion on the way down, because I was moving so slowly and I couldn't go any faster without the risk of dropping Naaga. We were alone on the stairs. Where was everyone else? Were they already gone or already dead?  
  
After a thousand years, I reached the bottom of the tower. Oh, cred, where the hell could I go?!  
  
Then it hit me. The Summoners' Sanctum.  
  
I put my head down and ran straight into the central tower that was the heart of the inferno.  
  
*****  
  
Smoke was everywhere. Charred bodies and half-melted, still-glowing metal were everywhere. The scents and sights and sounds of death were everywhere. I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe! Choking, I fell to my knees and half-crawled, half-ran, carrying the two of us toward the nearest stairwell down.  
  
I tripped and went sprawling, twisting my body sideways as I went down to keep Naaga from hitting the ground. My shoulder banged the floor hard and I cried out involuntarily. My feet were twisted around something heavy, and when I looked down, I saw it was Keyakku lying there, spread-eagled on the hard metal floor. He wasn't moving. I stifled another scream and kicked wildly at the corpse, the head turning and then flopping back under my blows. I was a few feet away when a fiend stomped up to the body, lowered its head, and began to eat Keyakku's leg. The crunch of bone echoed in my ears and I turned my head, wanting to retch.  
  
"Fryd yna oui tuehk?! Kad ib yht nih!" someone yelled at me. I looked up to see a man in a full gas mask staring down at me with the impassive face of death. A machine gun was cradled in his arms, and he jerked it at the stairs, motioning for me to make a run for it. I lurched to my feet once again.  
  
I was still stumbing, desperately trying to protect the two of us. Machine gun fire erupted too close to my ears and I threw myself down on top of Naaga, my hands over my head again. The next thing I heard was a thumping sound. When I looked up again, the gunner was dead, his sightless eyes staring into mine through the mask, and a massive Dual Horn was standing over me. He was breathing into my face, the air hot and acrid. I still couldn't breathe.  
  
In desperation, I turned over onto my back, still on top of my sister to protect her. My hands found my blitzball and I threw it straight into the fiend's face. It recoiled, bellowing, and I caught the ball on the rebound and threw it again. The beast charged off in dismay, and I grabbed Naaga again and almost rolled down the stairs.  
  
Here, it was easier to breathe, and I could run again. Down, down I raced, into the underground stronghold of Home. The Summoners' Sanctum, the place where we hid the summoners we'd saved. The only place that could survive this kind of attack. As I broke through one of the doors, a Guado guardian threw himself into my path, raising his arms as a red glow came into his eyes. I almost dropped Naaga and hurled myself straight into him with a blitzball tackle, my injured shoulder screaming with white-hot pain. His head hit the metal wall with a sickening crunch and he didn't move again.  
  
For an instant, I stared at the Guado and the blood seeping slowly down the wall. Then I picked up Naaga and kept running.  
  
*****  
  
We were almost there now. One more staircase to go. I could still hear the bellowing of the fiends above us, but there didn't seem to be any here. For the first time, it occured to me that we had a shot.  
  
"Fry--Linna, fryd'c kuehk uh?" a tiny voice asked me.  
  
Oh, cred, Naaga was awake! "Fa'na paehk yddylgat," I told her urgently. "E's dygehk ic tufh ehdu dra Sanctum. Lyh oui nih un tu oui fyhd sa du gaab lynnoehk oui?"  
  
"Bid sa tufh! E lyh nih!" Instantly, I dropped her and charged off at a much faster pace down the next flight of stairs. She ran after me. "Fryd'c rybbahehk? Fru'c yddylgehk ic?"  
  
"E tuh'd ghuf yht E tuh'd lyna!" I shouted back grimly. "Zicd crid ib yht gaab nihhehk!"  
  
Down here, it was eerily quiet. I hadn't realized how much noise had been going on around us before--the sounds of gunfire, shouting, screams. As we burst into the Sanctum, there was complete silence.  
  
The two summoners, the dominatrix and the one with the kid brothers, were solemnly performing the Sending on their dead guards. As I watched, the Pyreflies began rising from the bodies. One flew into my face and brushed past me, dissipating into the bloody, smoke-filled air. I buried my face in my hands and felt the dust from my goggles scrape off onto my fingers. I knew every one of those corpses. I had grown up with them.  
  
Kuinno, sprawled facedown on top of his gun, had been a year behind me in school. I'd tutored him in math once. He'd brought me lunch the next day, the cookies handmade and oddly- shaped, but I'd eaten them anyway because it made him smile. Ysamey, her delicate features slashed by a line of blood down the center of her shattered face, lived on our floor and had a dog that the manager didn't know about. She used to bring him to our apartment and let Naaga pet him. She had been the one watching my plants. Wamkytec had played blitzball with me. He could've been pro someday. I could see the blood-soaked floor on the other side of the hole in his stomach.  
  
I turned away, my eye sockets burning with tears I couldn't let them spill. I was standing in bloody ashes. Naaga wasn't moving. I tried to turn her face toward me so she couldn't see the macabre dance of the summoners, but she pushed me aside and didn't move again.  
  
I heard sobbing from one side of the room and turned. It was Tidus, sprawled on the floor in despair, his body wracked with tears. "No, no! I won't let her die! I won't let her die!" he was crying, over and over again.  
  
That's when I realized. Rikku and the other guardians were there, but their summoner was gone. Yuna was missing. And then I knew that someone had finally told Tidus the terrible truth about how Yuna's journey would end.  
  
"Dra airship!" Cid was yelling.  
  
"Naaga, fa'ja kuddy ku," I snapped at my sister, grabbing her hand. She was staring with empty eyes at the pile of bodies on the floor. "Naaga! Lusa uh!"  
  
I half-dragged her out to the airship dock and then up into the airship, where I finally dumped her on the floor of the observation deck. There were others there, maybe twenty or thirty.  
  
Twenty or thirty. Out of how many hundreds of us?  
  
Naaga was lying on the floor. It was pitch dark, with only the pale blue emergency lighting illuminating the silhouettes of the living dead. I heard the sound of metal shifting on sand, and then I was blinded by the sun on the desert floor. The airship had risen like a phoenix from the ashes. We were airborne.  
  
I wasn't in the cabin. I have no idea what went on in Cid's mind, or the minds of everyone else onboard that airship that day. But I know what I felt when I saw the airship leveling its great missle launchers at the only home I'd ever known.  
  
Close to me, an old woman began singing the Hymn of the Fayth, her eyes glistening with a green that was too bright. Her voice was a croak. Then the man next to her joined in the song. A young mother who had at least one child that I couldn't find in the crowd sang too, and then, one by one, the others joined in. For the first time, the gravity of what was happening hit me. I was singing, tears flooding my goggles, my voice lifting in the requiem for my Home.  
  
"Fro yna oui cehkehk?" Naaga asked.  
  
I couldn't answer. I couldn't move. I could only sit there, feeling the cold metal of the deck underneath me, as those missles slammed one by one into Home. I saw, in that same perfect slow motion, the shards of metal exploding, flying in all directions, a fireball that ended in dust blowing softly to the four winds of the desert. And then...only silence, as the sand swept back over the crater.  
  
Home was gone.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Home'c uh vena!" - "Home's on fire!"  
  
"Secc Linna, fryd yna oui--ur, hu. Ur, bmayca, hu." - "Miss Linna, what are you--oh, no. Oh, please, no."  
  
"Naaga'c rusa." - "Naaga's home."  
  
cred - shit  
  
"Oui eteud, kad uid uv drana huf!" - "You idiot, get out of there now!"  
  
"Fryd yna oui tuehk?! Kad ib yht nih!" - "What are you doing?! Get up and run!"  
  
"Fry--Linna, fryd'c kuehk uh?" - "Wha--Linna, what's going on?"  
  
"Fa'na paehk yddylgat." - "We're being attacked."  
  
"E's dygehk ic tufh ehdu dra Sanctum. Lyh oui nih un tu oui fyhd sa du gaab lynnoehk oui?" - "I'm taking us down into the Sanctum. Can you run or do you want me to keep carrying you?"  
  
"Bid sa tufh! E lyh nih!" - "Put me down! I can run!"  
  
"Fryd'c rybbahehk? Fru'c yddylgehk ic?" - "What's happening? Who's attacking us?"  
  
"E tuh'd ghuf yht E tuh'd lyna!" - "I don't know and I don't care!"  
  
"Zicd crid ib yht gaab nihhehk!" - "Just shut up and keep running!"  
  
"Dra airship!" - "The airship!"  
  
fa'ja kuddy ku - we've gotta go  
  
lusa uh - come on  
  
"Fro yna oui cehkehk?" - "Why are you singing?" 


	31. Anti Drain

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Recap for anyone who skipped part 30: This chapter picks up on the airship just after the destruction of Home. Linna and her little sister Naaga have both made it out alive, but at what cost?  
  
Author's Notes: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 31: Anti-Drain  
  
**********  
  
For days, I would not speak. I curled up into a tiny little ball in the corner of the dark aft cabin and refused to move, saying nothing, eating only a few bites of whatever was put in front of me, breaking into sobs whenever I was not asleep. Most often, I was in a kind of half-sleep, dreamless except for the sounds of screams ringing in my ears. They tell me during these periods I stared into the darkness with unseeing eyes, flicking my locket open and shut, over and over again. Someone came in each day to bandage my shoulder, bruised deep purple and oozing blood onto the floor, which was clean again every morning when I faded back into consciousness. Once, Naaga tried to get me to practice with my blitzball; I threw it at her. I didn't see it again.  
  
For the most part, I was left alone. Once or twice a day, someone would come down into my private hell, thinking they could raise me out of it. First Rikku, then Cid, then Nimrook, Naaga, Rin...I would talk to no one.  
  
On the third day of my silence, Tidus entered the room alone, closing the door behind him and plunging us into darkness. The pale emergency lights left the room almost completely black, and he did not switch the regular lights on. I was grateful. I didn't want to look at him.  
  
We sat in silence for almost an hour before he finally said, "I know what it's like to lose your home."  
  
I still said nothing. He kept talking. "You're going to think I'm crazy. But I come from Zanarkand. Not the ruins, but the city, a thousand years ago. Somehow, Sin brought me here.  
  
"I was playing blitzball when it happened. All of a sudden, the water in the sphere started shooting everywhere. I stood there and watched, trying to save myself, as Sin ravaged my city. The sphere, the streets, my house, everything--just gone.  
  
"And then--I was here. In Spira. Rikku was the one who told me I must be dreaming, that Zanarkand was destroyed a thousand years ago. So you see," he said, and in the dim almost-light I saw the shadow move as he turned away, "I don't have anywhere to go back to either."  
  
"Did they send you to make me eat?" I asked flatly.  
  
"No. I came because I needed to tell someone, and even if you think I'm nuts you'll understand."  
  
"What makes you think I care?"  
  
"You haven't chucked a blitzball at me yet." He paused. "That's how I know you understand what it's like to go through that kind of hell."  
  
"I just don't get--what's there left to live for?" I pounded a helpless fist on the metal floor. "Everything's gone, everything! What's the point of breathing now?"  
  
"But it's not everything!" he cried. "It's not! Your sister told me what happened. You saved her, you know? You still have the person who's most important to you." His voice broke as he buried his face in his hands. "But I can't protect the person who's important to me."  
  
"Yuna," I murmured. "So then...you know. You know that when she gets the Final Aeon, she'll--"  
  
"Don't say it!" He was shaking, and I closed my eyes as I felt the first teardrop splash against the metal floor. "She's not gonna die! I...I have to tell her I'm sorry. And then I'm gonna find a way to save her!"  
  
"You'd let Spira be destroyed?" I asked into the darkness. He didn't answer, so I kept going. "She's so important to you that you'd let Sin go on killing, let me and Wakka and everyone else in this world die, if it would keep her alive? You'd sacrifice a whole chessboard for a pawn?"  
  
He didn't speak for a long time, just kept crying to himself. When he answered, his voice was lined with more pain than any other sound I'd ever heard. "Yes," he whispered.  
  
I wondered then if he had just engraved my tombstone. I wondered how long it would be before Sin returned if she died to freeze it in time for a few years. I wondered what that kind of love felt like.  
  
We sat there in a room full of emptiness. Tidus cried. I stared into nothing, flicking my locket open and shut, open and shut.  
  
"Rikku told me this isn't the first time this happened, right?" he asked after a hollow silence.  
  
"Yeah...the Yevonites destroyed the place we lived in before Home."  
  
"You can rebuild, Linna. Because we're going to beat Sin. We're going to do it without letting Yuna and the others die. And when that happens, no one will be able to blame the Al Bhed for using machina anymore. You'll never be attacked again. And then--then you can build a city that will last forever."  
  
"And until then?" I asked softly.  
  
He pressed my blitzball into my hands. "Try this."  
  
I heard the sounds of motion as he stood up. The faint sliver of light appeared and vanished again as the door opened and shut behind him, leaving me alone in the darkness again.  
  
*****  
  
"Linna!" Lakkam cried when I stepped into the Psyches' cabin, my blitzball tucked under my arm. The six blitzers were all gathered in the kind of room I'd spent the last three days in--the cramped storage cabins were probably intended to hold cargo, not people. All of the players were alive, but like me, they looked worse for the wear. Berrik's head was bandaged, and Judda's arm was in a makeshift sling.  
  
"Are you guys all right?" I asked.  
  
"Yes. We have weathered the storm," replied Nimrook. He looked away. "Unfortunately, many did not."  
  
I stared at him. "What happened?"  
  
"Those Guado!" exploded Eigaar. "They attacked Home to go after the summoners!"  
  
"The Guado?" I echoed numbly. That was right. The eyes of the Guado guardian I'd killed stared out at me from the inside of my mind.  
  
"They will feel my wrath in the blitz sphere!" he shouted. His fists slammed into the wall. No one said anything, because we understood that his anger was the same as my silence and Tidus' tears. We'd all gotten our pain out in the only way we knew how.  
  
The only way we knew how? I smiled grimly to myself at that one. Tyssed, Linna, when did you turn into such a sap?  
  
Was this what war meant? Was this what it did to people? Blood trickled down my shoulder, and I didn't bother to wipe it away. We all stood there numbly, like idiots, just watching Eigaar hurt his fists pounding crazily at that damn wall. The silence was killing me, like the inside of the sphere pool. I felt like screaming, at everything and nothing.   
  
"How have you been?" Berrik asked me seriously when Eigaar had finally slumped to the floor, exhausted. "You were ill for three days."  
  
"It took a lesson in blitz to bring me back to life," was my simple reply.  
  
"The lesson was 'keep playing?'" Nimrook asked.  
  
"How did you know?"  
  
He smiled. "We each had to learn the same lesson ourselves. We need blitz to cheer our people after the loss of Home, you see?"  
  
Oui caa? The expression, so characteristically Al Bhed, sounded good against my ears after the long week of straight English. For some reason I couldn't explain, memories started hitting me. Blitzing in the streets. All the plants I'd collected from all over Spira and watered so carefully. Rare, precious moments of desert rain. Where the hell could I go? What was I even doing here?  
  
Blitzing.  
  
Yeah.  
  
"Now is the time to train, train!" Blappa announced, clapping me on the back. "Do not be overcome by despair! Everyone is counting on us!"  
  
"Since childhood, I have played only blitz! It is true!" That was Judda, jumping to her feet. "If we can do anything to help our people, drec ec ed, Linna!"  
  
Drec ec ed, Linna.  
  
*****  
  
Rin finally found me sitting out on the outside deck of the airship at sunset that night. I was rolling the bright green key sphere of our old apartment around in my hand.  
  
"I guess I don't need this anymore, right?" I asked ruefully when he came up to sit beside me. I raised my arm to chuck it off the ship.  
  
"Keep it." He closed my gloved fingers around it. "There may come a day when you wish to remember."  
  
"Might as well start over. I have nothing except the stuff that was in my gear bag from Luca. The only thing I got from Home was Naaga's stuffed Moogle." I put the little sphere back into my pocket and wrapped my arms around my knees. "No clothes, no plants, nothin'. I didn't even think to grab a picture of Mom and Dad. Naaga'll be mad about that. She doesn't remember them at all."  
  
"I can remedy that," Rin said quietly. From his jacket pocket, he removed a small spherical frame and handed it to me. Inside was a picture of the four of us--me, Naaga, Mom, and Dad. Mom was mugging cheerfully for the camera, and I realized this was a picture I'd never seen in any of the family albums Dad had made. For the first time, she looked happy, even with baby Naaga in her arms.  
  
"This is us," I said, stating the obvious.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Where'd you get it?"  
  
"Amirel gave it to me a long time ago, in another lifetime," he replied. He was looking out over the ocean we were sweeping across now. The desert was far behind us. "She hated it, but she said it was the only picture she had of herself smiling. She said...that that was the way she wanted me to see her, in my mind."  
  
"Is it?" I asked.  
  
"I see her smiling, but her eyes are always sad." He paused for a moment, and then continued. "I have kept that picture all these years to remind myself of what I'd done. Now it is yours."  
  
"The sphere, the Golden Arm...you're getting rid of all of her junk at once. Why not just have a garage sale?" I cracked before I could stop myself.  
  
He only smiled sadly, probably a reflection of the smile my mother's face held in his mind. "The last ten years have been hard, Miss Linna," he said honestly. "Amirel could be stubborn, bitter, competitive, and absolutely volcanic when she was angry--much, in fact, like you. But..." The sunset was reflected in the water, fiery red and pink and orange. I followed his gaze out toward that horizon, because neither one of us wanted to look at the other.  
  
"...but I loved her," he admitted finally. "It took me a long time to accept that. I loved her more than I could possibly tell you.  
  
"But she's gone now, Miss Linna. I have tried to cope with that in much the same way you will attempt to cope with the loss of Home. Never forget. Remember both the good and the bad. But do not let yourself dwell on your pain. You still have your whole life stretching before you. You have as many opportunities as there are drops of water in this sea."  
  
I hate sappiness. Hate it hate it hate it. I hate it because it's childish and annoying and a symbol of weakness. At that moment, I hated it because it was actually affecting me.  
  
"Hey, Rin?" I said into the wind. He turned to look at me. "Thanks.  
  
He gestured out into the infinite expanse of sea. "Thank her." Then he got to his knees and stood. "Naaga has been waiting to see you," he said. "Shall I send her out before we land?"  
  
"We're landing?" I asked.  
  
"Briefly, yes. There is an outpost, the Agency, near Luca where we plan to stop to 'refuel,' as it were. To pick up supplies. If you wish, you may disembark at Luca, or you may continue on with us. Cid says our course is charted for Bevelle."  
  
"Why Bevelle?"  
  
"The summoner Yuna is to be wed to Maester Seymour. For obvious reasons, her guardians wish to stop the wedding. Cid wishes to aid them." He frowned. "There may be fighting. I have no fear as to your safety, Miss Linna, but I worry for your sister. It is my recommendation that you find lodgings in Luca, or Besaid if you prefer, and remain there for the time being. You would not want to miss the league season in either case."  
  
"Yeah, you're probably right," I sighed. "Okay, send her out and I'll tell her we're going to stay in Luca. How long will it take to get there?"  
  
"You have approximately one hour." He turned to go back inside. "And Miss Linna? Do not forget our saying. 'Muca cusadrehk bnaleuic, veht cusadrehk ajah suna bnaleuic.'" With that, he bowed and departed.  
  
*****  
  
A few minutes later Naaga emerged on the deck. "Hey, sis," she greeted me.  
  
"Hey. You been spending all your time in the cabin with Aniki?" I said. It came out grouchier than I'd intended.  
  
"Oh, Aniki's so boring when he's flying. He's all 'This really isn't my forte. I have to fly the airship now, goodbye.' And all those guardians are moping around in there, cursing at each other for letting their summoner get kidnapped. The Ronso and that creepy guy in the red coat are standing outside, so after a while I stopped going near there. I've been spending most of my time in the hold. I tell stories to the little kids."  
  
"Yeah? I'm glad to hear it. It's good that you're staying busy."  
  
"Lakkam said you're doing better now. I'm...glad about that too." Now it was her turn to sit next to me, gingerly trying to avoid getting any more dirt on her already dust-drenched skirt. Eventually she gave up and just plunked herself down. "I...I wanted to thank you, you know?"  
  
"For what?" I asked.  
  
"You saved Moogle. And...well, you saved me too. I wouldn't have made it out if it wouldn't've been for you. And...I couldn't...I tried to save your plants, but I couldn't..."  
  
"You're my sister, Naaga." I reached over to give her a hug. "Even if you're stupid sometimes, or if you date loser guys, or if you're stubborn about some things, I love you. I'd definitely rather have a little sister than a whole greenhouse of plants."  
  
"So does that mean I can go out with Aniki Saturday night?" she asked slyly. I made a face at her. "I'm kidding," she laughed. "And I love you too, even if you are too bossy and make me do all the cooking."  
  
"Well, I do the laundry."  
  
"Maybe, but that's a really small job now!" We looked at each other, unsure whether to cry or laugh, and she leaned her head on my shoulder. I put one arm around her, smoothing her hair out of her eyes like I used to do when she was a little kid, and for a long time I thought she'd fallen asleep.  
  
"Where are we going to go, Linnie?" she asked in a little girl's voice.  
  
"Luca. The ship's going to stop there in a little less than an hour. We can spend the night in the Aurochs' locker room, and in the morning we'll find someplace to stay."  
  
"Luca?" Her eyes were big and round.  
  
"Luca. Remember Mom was always talking about it?" She didn't remember, but she nodded anyway. "I'll probably have to spend a lot of time in Besaid, practicing. Now that I'm the future captain of the Aurochs and all..."  
  
"You didn't tell me that!" She pounced on me. "I saw you! I saw you when you won the tournament! I was screaming and jumping up and down on your bed and all my friends thought I was crazy! It was so awesome!"  
  
"On MY bed?!" I wanted to demand, but considering that the ashes that had once been my bed were buried somewhere in more grains of sand than I wanted to sift through, I figured I could let it go this time. "Did you happen to see the guy who was right there in the last game?" I asked instead.  
  
"You mean that Bickson guy? What about him?"  
  
I grinned, knowing she'd love the gossip. "Wellll..." Casually, making it look like an accident, I flicked the locket open.  
  
"Oooh, what's this? You and him? And who's that?"  
  
"That's Miyu. I'll introduce you to her when we play the Glories." Oh, cred, the Glories. I felt a surge of anger squeeze my lungs. Damn the Guado! Naaga was staring at me, and I pressed myself on. "You'll love her. She's not as serious as I am. And Bickson...you'll really like him. He's a pretty gorgeous customer, if I do say so myself."  
  
She laughed to herself, then grew still. "Linnie...are we gonna be okay?"  
  
I gave her shoulders a squeeze. "You betcha, kid."  
  
*****  
  
Forty-five minutes later, Rin surfaced again in the entryway. "Ladies, if you will follow me, we will be docking momentarily," he announced with a formal bow. Naaga and I went in, collected our stuff, said goodbye to the small crowd of well-wishers, and stepped out into the electric porcupine that was Luca.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
tyssed - dammit  
  
oui caa - you see  
  
drec ec ed - this is it  
  
"Muca cusadrehk bnaleuic, veht cusadrehk ajah suna bnaleuic." - "Lose something precious, find something even more precious." (Note: according to the game, this is an actual Al Bhed saying.)  
  
cred - shit 


	32. Anti Drain 2

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
*hides behind Tidus doll and waves it around, trying not to move her mouth* flame...mage...is...your...leader...you...will...not...sue...  
  
Author's Notes: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 32: Anti-Drain 2  
  
**********  
  
"Frana yna fa kuehk, Linnie?" Naaga asked as I strode through the gates of the city and out toward the stadium. There were still people on the streets, but nowhere near as many as there had been during the tournament. I kept my head down and walked fast, motioning for Naaga to do the same and making a wide swing to the far side of the square to avoid walking anywhere near Mitza's stand. Now would not be a good time to be recognized.  
  
"I told you, the arena. I've got my locker room key, and since there haven't been any games the janitors won't be cleaning tonight." I wasn't sure if this was true or not, but I hoped it was. "And if Biggs and Wedge stop us, we'll be okay. It's my locker room, after all." I was talking in English, and when she didn't follow suit I pinched her until she got the message.  
  
"What do we do after that?"  
  
"As soon as they're done in Bevelle, I'm hoping the airship will come for us," I answered through gritted teeth.  
  
She was in awe at the huge arena and all the lights. It took a little work to get her to stop staring and duck into the back hallway. I was digging out my key sphere when a voice at the end of the hallway said, "Linna?"  
  
I whirled, already trying to figure out what my cover story was. By the time I was facing the man who had spoken, the fact that I had just left my spare towel on the bench and was going to grab it so I could take a shower before hitting the sack for the night was on the tip of my tongue. I didn't see the strange cylindrical helmet and guard uniform I'd expected to see when I got there, though.  
  
"Bickson!" I stage-whispered out of the corner of my mouth. We stood still for a few seconds, blinking at each other. He was in uniform, with the Goers' royal blue equipment bag slung over his shoulder. As soon as he took a step towards me, I cracked and practically launched myself at him.  
  
He caught me, sounding confused. "Linna, what are you doing here? I thought you were going home for a couple weeks."  
  
"Turns out I don't have a home to go back to anymore." Dammit, I was going to start crying again. I did that trick where you don't say anything and don't look at anyone, but it didn't work all that well. "Bickson...they destroyed everything...there were smoke and bodies everywhere...I was so afraid we weren't going to get out..."  
  
"Oh, Yevon," he breathed.  
  
"Exactly! It was Yevon, it was the Guado! They--" I broke off to preserve my sanity and self-worth, because if I kept talking, in another three seconds I'd bury my face in his chest and start sniveling like the heroine of the kind of cheap romance sphere movie Naaga was always sniffling over with a box of chocolates whenever her latest boy toy dumped her.  
  
I must've looked bleary-eyed because he whispered, "Shh...it's okay. It's okay. Cry if you need to."  
  
He was probably just looking for an excuse to show off his sensitive-machoness and comfort me in a protectively masculine way, but this was the right thing to say. As soon as someone gives me permission to act childish, I absolutely refuse to. Right away, I took off my goggles and scrunched my fists into my eyes to get rid of the first few tears that had been threatening to spill.  
  
"All right," he said when I'd calmed down. "I don't know why you're heading into that sweatpot of a locker room, but you're absolutely filthy and my shower is much better than that one, I promise you. You're going to come upstairs to my room, and I'm going to make you some...I don't know, hot tea or something, and you're going to take a shower and tell me the whole story if you need to get it out, and then you're going to go to bed."  
  
I was about to make a crack about the bed thing when Naaga demanded, "Linnie, fru EC drec kio?!"  
  
"Ur, cred." I disentangled myself from Bickson's arms and turned around. "Naaga, nasaspan frah oui dumt sa ev E vuiht yho lida kioc, E fyc cibbucat du pnehk dras Home du saad oui? Famm, upjeuicmo E lyh'd tu dryd, cu E ryt du pnehk oui rana du saad res. Drec ec Bickson." Then I turned to the slightly bewildered blitzer. "Uhm, Bickson, this is my sister Naaga."  
  
"Uur, Bickson!" Naaga clapped her hands in delight and spoke in very fast, very cheerful Al Bhed. Her tone of voice suggested that the words were something like "Hi, it's so great to meet you; I'm a huge fan of yours!" and that's what he took it for, but she was actually saying something very different. "Fuf, yht ymm draca oaync E druikr Linnie fyc y dudym cxiyna. Vehymmo, cra'c bnujat cra ghufc ruf du belg 'as. Yna oui cehkma? Oui fyhd du ku uid vun tehhan un cusadrehk?"  
  
"Naaga, oui pnyd, gaab ouin ryhtc uvv," I snapped, twisting my thumb and index finger into her arm. She yelped and glared at me. Both of us had long since mastered the art of pinching each other without leaving a bruise.  
  
Bickson rubbed the back of his head. "Linna, I know like five words in Al Bhed, and three of them are curses. Can you tell her it's nice to meet her?"  
  
"Tell her yourself," I replied. "She speaks English."  
  
"E tu?" Naaga asked sweetly, still rubbing her arm.  
  
"Oui tu ev oui tuh'd fyhd du veht uid frana dra pacd bmyla du cmaab uh dra cdnaadc uv Luca ec."  
  
"Oops, I guess I do." She flashed Bickson her best look-at-me-I'm-so-cute-you-can't- possibly-be-mad-at-me smile, showing all her teeth. "I just want to say it's a pleasure to meet you, Bickson. I've heard soooo much about you." I resisted the urge to wham her over the head with my gear bag, but just barely.  
  
"Linna just can't shut up about me, huh?" he grinned. "Come on. Something tells me there's a better place to have this discussion than thirty feet from where Biggs is standing."  
  
"I don't know if we should--" I protested.  
  
Naaga grabbed my hand and set off after Bickson. "Mad'c ku, cdibet, syopa ra cmaabc eh zicd puqanc un cusadrehk."  
  
That's the kind of argument you really can't fight. I went.  
  
*****  
  
I turned the water in the shower on so hot it was nearly scalding and turned the soap black with the long days of charred dirt that had been worn into my skin. My shoulder hurt like hell when the drops hit it; the whole thing was blue-black with bruises where I'd hit it on the floor. I also used half a bottle of shampoo trying to get the smell of smoke out of my hair, but it would be a long time before I could get rid of that tangible reminder of the destruction of Home. Eventually I gave up and got out.  
  
My own clothes were in the wash, but when I dried myself off, I found a long blue robe on the counter, along with a note: "Borrowed this from Balgerda. If it doesn't fit, she says she has some other stuff you can try. --Bick." I snickered despite myself as I imagined Balgerda's fury at having her door pounded on in the middle of the night, then I picked up the nightgown. It had the light, ethereal feel of expensive silk. It could be eighteen sizes too small and I would not complain in the slightest.  
  
"Finally, ya slob," Naaga said grumpily when I came back out. She was perched on one of the stools Bickson had at the kitchen bar. Bickson was on the other side of the bar, making a pot of tea on the stove range. "You better not've used all the hot water," she threatened as she went in.  
  
Her scream at the ice-cold stream that greeted her a few minutes later was all too gratifying.  
  
Bickson came around with the tea and poured me a cup. "Herbal, with just a drop of Moonflow," he explained. "My grandmother swore by it."  
  
"Thanks." I was so tired I didn't bother to call him a geek for making herbal tea, or even complain that it wasn't coffee. I just took the handleless clay cup in both hands and drank, slowly. He took the chair next to me and poured his own cup.  
  
"So," he began as we drank, "you want to talk about it?"  
  
"Don't get me started," I warned. He waited. "All right, fine, if you can stand to listen to a sob story, I'll give you the short-and-sweet version. When we got to Home, the whole place was already going down in flames. There were fiends everywhere. By the time I showed up, the joint was a ghost town. Everyone was already underground or dead. Bodies strewn all over the place, smoke and blood everywhere..." I closed my eyes and took a long drag of the tea. Scientific fact: you can't drink and cry at the same time. Personally, I'd much rather drink than cry.  
  
When I could speak again, I continued, "We had an apartment in one of the towers, pretty high up. I climbed up ten flights of stairs...something, maybe one of the Zu, hit the building while I was on my way up and the whole place caught fire. Smoke was already filling the top floors when I got to the apartment. I found Naaga lying in the doorway and carried her all the way down."  
  
He was watching me silently, not saying anything, and I had to take a deep breath for the next part. "We had this...this place, where we kept the summoners. Underground."  
  
"Where you kept them? You were the ones kidnapping those summoners?"  
  
"We were trying to keep them safe," I tried to defend myself. "Our leader, Cid, believes that there's gotta be another way to defeat Sin, one that won't kill the summoners. His niece is a summoner too. We were trying to protect the summoners until we could figure out what to do. We couldn't just let them die."  
  
"But that's against the teachings. Yevon says--"  
  
"Yeah, we all know what Yevon says, and I think it's bullshit," I snapped harshly.  
  
"All right, fine." He glanced around as if expecting to see Maester Mika standing behind him listening in, then said, "I'm starting to see where you're coming from. Keep going."  
  
"From the Sanctum, we went straight into this airship. Cid and a few others found it in Baaj a couple months ago and got it working."  
  
"An airship?"  
  
"Yeah. You know what one is, right? It's just like a ship you'd use in water, except that it flies through the air. They were really surprised when it flew--no one was sure if it'd actually work or not." Now I was stalling to avoid the hard part of the story.  
  
"So you took this...airship thingy...to get here?"  
  
"Unh-huh." I swallowed. "But...there were just too many fiends. To get rid of them...we had to blow up Home."  
  
Silent tears were running down my cheeks now, splashing over the tea leaves in my empty cup. "There was nothing left, Bickson. Nothing. Two decades of my life, gone in an instant. If you went back now, you'd find nothing but sand." I felt my voice crack up into a high mewling sound. "Everything...it's all gone..."  
  
"Oh, Yevon, Linna..." He put his arms around me again, and this time I let myself cry, sobbing until the last of the tears were gone. I told you I'm tough. It's the truth. I hadn't cried when Mom and Dad died. I hadn't cried when Rin left, or when the bill collectors threatened to take all our furniture and put me and Naaga in an orphanage, or when I'd been humiliated in the locker room. In fact, in twenty years I couldn't remember ever crying before this week. And in the last few days, I'd been sobbing until I thought my tear ducts would rupture.  
  
I didn't try to control myself and he didn't try to calm me down, just held me as each fresh sob welled up from somewhere inside my chest. I'm pretty sure I punched him, and he let me. When I broke down again, he stroked my hair, whispering, "It's all right...it's all right..." over and over again.  
  
"I don't usually tell people this because it's kinda weird, but you know what else my grandmother taught me when I was a little kid?" he asked in a quiet tone of voice when my sobs had given way to silent tears again.  
  
"What?"  
  
He freed one arm to pick up my teacup. "She taught me how to read tea leaves. I thought it was dorky then, but take a look." He tilted the cup toward me, and I looked inside.  
  
"All I see is a clump of wet tea leaves," I admitted.  
  
"Okay, Imaginationless One, so we're still a little cynical. Look at the shape."  
  
I peered into the cup and stared dutifully at the little brown clot of plant matter huddled soggily at the bottom. "Ha," I snorted, "It looks like a Chocobo drawn by a spastic five-year-old."  
  
I'd been lying through my teeth, but Bickson nodded in approval. "Very good, my skeptical pupil. You know what my grandmother said a Chocobo means?"  
  
"It's supposed to mean something?"  
  
"Humor me. I'm trying to cheer you up, stupid."  
  
"Okay, fine, it means that I should run like a Chocobo and never look back."  
  
"Eeehhhntt!" He made the sound of a buzzer. "It's a sign of good luck. That means that you're going to be all right. Oui caa?"  
  
He got points for the correct use of Al Bhed, but I still wasn't convinced. "You moron, that's just as mystical as Yevon. Give me something real, would you?"  
  
"Fine." He set the teacup down and put his arms around me again. "There's your reality. Now go get some sleep."  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Frana yna fa kuehk, Linnie?" - "Where are we going, Linnie?"  
  
"Linnie, fru EC drec kio?!" - "Linnie, who IS this guy?!"  
  
"Ur, cred." - "Oh, shit."  
  
"Naaga, nasaspan frah oui dumt sa ev E vuiht yho lida kioc, E fyc cibbucat du pnehk dras Home du saad oui? Famm, upjeuicmo E lyh'd tu dryd, cu E ryt du pnehk oui rana du saad res. Drec ec Bickson." - "Naaga, remember when you told me if I found any cute guys, I was supposed to bring them Home to meet you? Well, obviously I can't do that, so I had to bring you here to meet him. This is Bickson."  
  
"Uur, Bickson!" - "Ooh, Bickson!"  
  
"Fuf, yht ymm draca oaync E druikr Linnie fyc y dudym cxiyna. Vehymmo, cra'c bnujat cra ghufc ruf du belg 'as. Yna oui cehkma? Oui fyhd du ku uid vun tehhan un cusadrehk?" - "Wow, and all these years I though Linnie was a total square. Finally, she's proved she knows how to pick 'em. Are you single? You want to go out for dinner or something?"  
  
"Naaga, oui pnyd, gaab ouin ryhtc uvv." - "Naaga, you brat, keep your hands off."  
  
"E tu?" - "I do?"  
  
"Oui tu ev oui tuh'd fyhd du veht uid frana dra pacd bmyla du cmaab uh dra cdnaadc uv Luca ec." - "You do if you don't want to find out where the best place to sleep on the streets of Luca is."  
  
"Mad'c ku, cdibet, syopa ra cmaabc eh zicd puqanc un cusadrehk." - "Let's go, stupid, maybe he sleeps in just boxers or something." 


	33. Tackle Slip 2

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I own Clissi--at least, that was the name I gave to the Naida lookalike who works at the Mi'ihen Agency.   
  
Author's Notes: Another big long conversation in Al Bhed in this chapter; I swear it's the last one. A full translation in English is included at the end of the chapter. Bear with me.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 33: Tackle Slip 2  
  
**********  
  
Later I would remember it as a dream. She's lying on a bed of hot silk and the darkness feels like it's pressing in all around her, sneaking down her throat and expanding until it threatens to suffocate her. She tries to claw through the darkness, but it doesn't work. She's trapped alone, and then the darkness chokes her and squeezes her windpipe until she surrenders and goes under and lets herself drown in it.  
  
"Don't leave me. Please, don't leave me!" she whispers desperately into that emptiness.  
  
"I won't. I promise you I won't leave you," comes the reply.  
  
*****  
  
I slept restlessly. When I closed my eyes, I smelled the charnel house that Home had become and felt the hot breath of the Dual Horn in my face again. I woke up surrounded by the feeling of silk and the need to escape.  
  
On the other side of the bed--which was, incidentally, Bickson's--trusting Naaga was sprawled out on her stomach. The quiet sn-sn-snork of her snoring started to irritate me within thirty seconds, and I won't even mention the fact that she was hogging all the covers and I was still hot. When she'd slept on the airship, I'd seen tears leaking out of her eyes, but now she looked peaceful. Just a little girl. Funny how innocent people seemed when they were sleeping.  
  
"Can't sleep, green eyes?" a lazy voice asked beside me.  
  
I looked over to see Bickson sitting a few feet away, watching me.  
  
"What are you doing up?" I wanted to know, propping myself up on one elbow and resting the side of my face in one hand.  
  
"Just keeping watch. You okay?"  
  
"Aaah, I have to get out of here for a while. Mind if I go take a walk on the beach or something?"  
  
"Want company or not?"  
  
I paused mid-stretch looked at Naaga. "I don't like leaving her alone."  
  
He yawned. "Doram's up. I told her and Balgerda that I had some friends visiting. She'll make sure everything's okay if it'll make you feel better."  
  
Quietly, I tossed off the last edge of the covers Naaga hadn't stolen and got up. "All right. Let's go."  
  
He stopped to knock on Doram's door and made sure she got herself settled in the chair by the bed before we took off. The pigtailed Goer actually smiled when she said, "I hope you guys enjoy your visit." Maybe she wasn't quite as bad as I'd thought.  
  
The beach was quiet in the pale blue moonlight. The occasional crab skittered sideways across the sand, but other than that, the only sound was the waves. I was outside barefoot, for the first time I could remember, the silk nightgown fluttering around me. It was like something from a movie.  
  
I didn't know where I was going, just that I wanted to walk and feel the water splash across my feet. Bickson slipped his hand into mine--it hit me that it was the first time neither of us had been wearing gloves and I was surprised at the small feeling of warmth that washed over me--but neither of us said anything, which was the way I wanted it.  
  
"Rao, oui!" a voice rang out behind me.  
  
"Tyssed," I cursed automatically, twisting around to see the woman who had called my name. She was sitting on the back of a Chocobo, the moonlight accentuating the ringed lines of the tattoos all down the front of her body.  
  
"Linna, fryd y bmaycyhd cinbneca. Hi, Bick," she said, in a mixture of Al Bhed and English. Bickson waved. The Al Bhed woman dismounted and came over.  
  
"Lid dra vunsymedeac, Naida," I snapped. "E raynt oui fana fungehk yd dra Agency eh dra Calm Lands."  
  
"E fyc. Upjeuicmo, huf E's hud." She laughed, the sound of silver bells with bullets inside. "Dnidr pa dumt, E ryt du syga y cibbmo nih du dra Agency uh dra Mi'ihen Highroad. Meddma tet E ghuf E't pa cahd uh dnejeym annyhtc mega cusa geht uv tamejano puo."  
  
"Fryd annyht?" I asked wearily.  
  
"Clissi, dra lmang drana, ybbynahdmo kud y saccyka vun uha Secc Linna, vnus so tayn asbmuoan Rin. Ra cyet oui't bnupypmo pa fedr dryd uphuqeuic Goer lybdyeh kio. Oui tu ghuf ruf du belg dras, tuh'd oui?"  
  
"Yc vyclehydat yc E's cina Rin sicd pa fedr so muja meva, E's ymcu cina drana sicd'ja paah y buehd."  
  
"Nekrd oui yna, Linna. Rin ryt drec du cyo du oui yht ouin ytunypma meddma cecdan: tecybbayn. Tuh'd cbayg Al Bhed eh bipmel, tuh'd fayn tecdehldeja lmudrehk, dnyta ouin kukkmac eh vun kmyccac ev oui lyh yht fayn dras ymm dra desa yhofyo ev oui lyh'd, yht toa ouin ryen. Tuh'd mad yhouha ghuf oui'na Al Bhed."  
  
"Fro?" I wanted to know. "Drao tecufhehk sa?"  
  
"Yc ysicehk yc dryd fuimt pa, hu. Drana'c ypuid du pa y mud uv dnuipma. Drao kud druca cdnyo guardians du Bevelle yht huf Aniki ryc luhdnum uv dra yencreb. Ra'c kuehk du pmuf ib Guadosalam." She looked satisfied, as if to add, "Good for him, eh?"  
  
Guadosalam. Guadosalam meant Miyu. In a matter of hours, Miyu would die in the same kind of inferno I'd just lived through.  
  
Nobody deserved that. Nobody.  
  
And then I started seeing it in my mind. I'd never been to Guadosalam, but I'd heard the stories and even seen sphere pictures Mom'd taken when she'd gone there for matches. The whole place looked magical, brightly lit with brilliant colors everywhere. A town in the forest, where the homes were carved out of trees. As a little kid, I'd always wondered what those huge trees must look like and what it would be like to live in such a cool, dark place. It was nothing like the desert I'd grown up in. Even our greenhouses could never fake Guadosalam.  
  
I saw those huge trees burning thick with black smoke, fire raging through their leaves. Twisted lumps of colored glass would be lying everywhere, melted or shattered. Babies would be crying in their mothers' arms. Gradually, the Guado would begin to realize that, for them, there was no way out. No airship would be their salvation. The younger ones would keep struggling. I thought of the old woman on the airship with the glass-marble eyes, singing the Hymn of the Fayth. Only the people her age would realize what was going to happen to them.  
  
There was a time when I would've agreed with Naida. Maybe I would've even hitched a ride on the airship with Aniki and gone to dish out a little payback myself. I don't know what made my skin crawl then, why I couldn't stand to imagine anyone else going through what had happened to me. Maybe I'd just grown up a little bit.  
  
"Dryd cdibet pycdynt'c kuehk du pmuf ib Guadosalam?!" I demanded.  
  
Now she was definitely satisfied. "Oab. Zicd fryd druca retauic Yevonites tacanja vun tacdnuoehk uin Home, tuh'd oui yknaa?"  
  
"Fryd dra ramm fuimt gemmehk y pihlr uv umt fusah yht lremtnah bnuja?! Dra Guado ryja ymm dra bufan uv dra Yevonites uh draen ceta. Ev fa yddylg dras, drao'mm myihlr y vimm-clyma fyn ykyehcd ic. Ech'd Cid tuehk yhodrehk?"  
  
"Ajah dra sekrdo Cid lyh'd ku fedruid cmaabehk vunajan. Yht lusa uh, oui'na dra uhmo uha Aniki'c naymmo clynat uv, yht oui'na cdilg eh drec tisb."  
  
"Fyhhy pad?" Before she could stop me, I was on the back of her Chocobo. "Hey, Bickson, tell Naaga I'll be back sometime this afternoon, okay?" I called over my shoulder as I kicked it into a gallop toward the Mi'ihen Highroad. Naida tried to protest, but I stuck my tongue out of her and kept hauling ass.  
  
"Where are you going?!" Bickson shouted back.  
  
I shot him a grin. "To stop an ex-boyfriend from blowing up the world."  
  
*****  
  
This is why I still think tea readings are crap: the Chocobo I'd seen the night before had absolutely nothing to do with good luck. It was probably a warning telling me that if I knew what was good for me, I'd stay the hell away from Chocobos for the rest of my life. Obviously, I've never been the kind of person who knows what's good for her--or cares--so I ignored the ominous signs. Whether or not it was a mistake is anyone's guess.  
  
They don't make Chocobos like they used to. This one, the result of some interesting little crossbreeding experiments in the Calm Lands, was designed for rentals by the Agency there: it was strong, fast, and had mad crazy endurance. That crazy yellow bird ran virtually all the way through the streets of Luca--so much for not attracting attention--and halfway down the Mi'ihen Highroad until we reached the travel agency.  
  
"Clissi, I really really really need to use your sphere," I panted as soon as I got in the door. The Al Bhed shopgirl, who had been reading a comic book, quickly shelved what she was doing and gaped at me. Ropp, who was working on the other side, tried to protest, but I was ignoring him and working the magic of a forceful personality on the scantily-clad girl on the other side of the counter. What was going on in her head--and Naida's--when they'd picked out their matching outfits? Bikinis and boots? Blecch.  
  
Three seconds later--the limit of my tolerance--she was still gaping. "Thanks," I said without bothering to wait, and shoved her out of the way of the communication sphere behind the desk. This was what I was looking for: it had an automatic connection to the portable sphere Rin always carried for communication. This was another example of inexplicable, highly forbidden machina technology, but damn, I wished I could afford my own mobile comm sphere.  
  
"Rin?!" I cried as soon as his image appeared on the screen. He looked like he'd aged forty years, with an expression bordering on chronically harassed.  
  
"Miss Linna. I see you got my message?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I did, lemme talk to Aniki."  
  
"Aniki? He is in the cabin, flying the--"  
  
"Do I care? Ask me if I care. The answer is no. Just set it near him so he can hear me. This is kind of a matter of life and death here."  
  
"You wish to talk him out of the attack on Guadosalam, yes?" My mentor shook his head. "It cannot be done, Miss Linna. I have tried."  
  
"Uhm, hey, yeah, Linna?" Clissi cut in, trying to put a hand on my arm. "Yeah, you can't use that sphere. You're, like, gonna have to leave."  
  
Slowly and deliberately, I pried her fingers one by one off my glove and bent her arm back at her with so much force she yelped and skittered to the other side of the room. Ropp raised both hands in a gesture of defeat, so I turned back to Rin. "Why can't anyone get Cid to deal with this?" I demanded.  
  
Rin did something that, if he were a normal person instead of a notoriously unflappable enterpriser, would have been an eye-roll. "Cid sleeps like a bear," he muttered finally.  
  
"And no one else can do anything?"  
  
"Aniki has posted guards at the entrance to the cabin. It seems we are all passengers on this mad flight of fancy."  
  
"Give this to one of the guards. I guarantee you they'll let me talk to him."  
  
"And you believe you can talk him out of his plans?" Rin asked skeptically.  
  
I slapped a cocky grin on my face that projected an intense confidence that I wasn't even close to feeling. "I don't believe it, actually. I know it. Now put me on."  
  
*****  
  
About two minutes later, after an extended conversation between Rin and one of the guards whose voice I recognized as Nedus', someone brought the sphere into the cabin and set it up next to Aniki, who was gripping the controls with murder in his eyes.  
  
"Linna? What do you want?" he demanded irritably.  
  
"Lemme ask you something, Aniki. You're an Al Bhed male, in good shape and excellent health. You know what your life expectancy is?"  
  
"No."  
  
I waited for the 'thinking is not my forte' speech, but it didn't come, so eventually I answered, "It's about 75 years. Now how would you like to realize, while your life is flashing before your eyes, that you had your midlife crisis at age 10?"  
  
"What are you getting at?"  
  
I sighed. "You know, that's why it just wouldn't've worked. You don't get the whole witty repartee thing. Okay, fine, I'll spell it out for you, in words of one syllable: you attack Guadosalam, I hunt you down and turn your head into a blitzball, got it?"  
  
"Yes. No. Why?!" His face scrunched up, in the way it always did when he was thinking too hard and getting annoyed with it. "They attacked us. Why can't I pay them back?"  
  
"What does it solve, Aniki?! Take a look in one of those cabins. Who's left? The young, the strong, those who can still fight. You know who's not there, Aniki? The old people, the sick ones, the little kids. If you destroy Guadosalam, the people who have enough power to destroy you and me and all the rest of us are the ones who will survive. And they'll bring all of Yevon with them when they come back to settle the score. Don't you get it? We can't win!"  
  
"Who cares? At least we'll go down fighting!"  
  
I tried being logical. "You know what they'll hit first? Two things: the airship and our leaders. You're piloting the airship and you're our leader's son. Double hit. You'll be the first to die, you and your dad and your little sister. How old is she, like fifteen? The kid never even got a chance to live, Aniki, and you're writing her death sentence."  
  
"How many others have died? She would want to avenge the deaths of her friends. She would want to know Keyakku's death was not in vain."  
  
"It wasn't, stupid. He died trying to protect her and the rest of us at Home. The only way we could make his death meaningless is to all go out and get our asses slaughtered!"  
  
He was furious now. "You're wrong, Linna. You're wrong!"  
  
Logic didn't work. Fear didn't work. Playing for his sympathy didn't work. I was starting to get desperate. I'd heard Nedus say they'd be at Guadosalam in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes from now, Miyu, the Glories, and their whole world would be engulfed in flames.  
  
Then I remembered what Naida had said. "You're the only one Aniki's really scared of." Part of it was probably that infamous right hook and bad temper of mine, but I couldn't exactly deck him from here. Even when we were dating--  
  
--he was always trying to be macho. Trying to act like the tough guy. Trying to impress people. He was scared out of his skull of getting hit by that right hook, but he was even more scared that I'd tell someone that it always hit him--hard. And he went absolutely nuts when I found out that he didn't like the dark and still slept with a teddy bear and sobbed like a baby at the movies when the hero and the heroine finally got together while I was sitting there wondering why I'd wasted two hours.  
  
Ha. I bet Naida didn't know that.  
  
But, I thought, smiling the smile of the truly blissed-out, I could always tell her.  
  
"You know, some people just won't listen to reason," I sighed. "Fine, try this. You attack Guadosalam and I tell that entire airship that you cry at chick flicks. And THEN I kill you."  
  
His milky white skin would've paled if it could've gotten any lighter. Instead it flushed. "You wouldn't."  
  
"Wouldn't I? Look at Aniki, the big shot, playing god while Daddy's asleep. The young, fresh face of modern terrorism. I bet you wouldn't feel so macho if Naida found out what a wimp you really are, huh?"  
  
"So what am I supposed to do, Linna?! What do you want from me?!" Aniki cried, pounding his fist on the dashboard like a spoiled kid. The airship swerved. I felt the sphere struggle against its base and return to normal.  
  
"Our only hope is to fight Sin. When Sin is gone, the Yevonites won't be able to blame us anymore. We won't have to kidnap the summoners. Can't you see that, Aniki? Don't you get that it's the only way out?"  
  
"Fine. Fine!" He was almost sobbing. "We will go after Sin!"  
  
"Then do something for me," I said in my best velvet-wrapped steel voice. "When you get there...I want you to look it in the face for me and tell it Linna sent you." Then I broke up the connection.  
  
I waited until Rin called back, saying that Aniki had gone to his father and told him everything, and that Cid had taken command of the airship again. Then I grabbed the reins of the Chocobo and headed down the long, dusty road back to Luca.  
  
*********  
  
Translations:  
  
[note: All dialogue is translated from the Al Bhed unless denoted by an "E"]  
  
Naida: [entering on Chocobo] Hey, you!  
  
Linna: [to herself] Dammit.  
  
Naida: Linna, what a pleasant surprise. [E] Hi, Bick. [dismounts and walks over]  
  
Linna: Cut the formalities, Naida. I heard you were working at the Agency in the Calm Lands.  
  
Naida: I was. Obviously, now I'm not. [laughs] Truth be told, I had to make a supply run to the Agency on the Mi'ihen Highroad. Little did I know I'd be sent on trivial errands like some kind of delivery boy.  
  
Linna: What errand?  
  
Naida: Clissi, the clerk there, apparently got a message from one Miss Linna, from my dear employer Rin. He said you'd probably be with that obnoxious Goer captain guy. You do know how to pick them, don't you?  
  
Linna: As fascinated as I'm sure Rin must be with my love life, I'm also sure there must've been a point.  
  
Naida: Right you are, Linna. Rin had this to say to you and your adorable little sister: disappear. Don't speak Al Bhed in public, don't wear distinctive clothing, trade your goggles in for glasses if you can and wear them all the time anyway if you can't, and dye your hair. Don't let anyone know you're Al Bhed.  
  
Linna: Why? They disowning me?  
  
Naida: As amusing as that would be, no. There's about to be a lot of trouble. They got those stray guardians to Bevelle and now Aniki has control of the airship. He's going to blow up Guadosalam.  
  
Linna: That stupid bastard's going to blow up Guadosalam?  
  
Naida: Yep. Just what those hideous Yevonites deserve for destroying our Home, don't you agree?  
  
Linna: What the hell would killing a bunch of old women and children prove?! The Guado have all the power of the Yevonites on their side. If we attack them, they'll launch a full-scale war against us. Isn't Cid doing anything?  
  
Naida: Even the mighty Cid can't go without sleeping forever. And come on, you're the only one Aniki's really scared of, and you're stuck in this dump.  
  
Linna: Wanna bet? 


	34. Sphere Shot

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
*takes deep breath* THIS IS THE LAST ACTUAL CHAPTER! DON'T RUIN THE STORY NOW BY SUING ME! (And in the event that I don't get bombarded by legal problems, the epilogue will be up soon.)  
  
Author's Notes: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
blitzoff 34: Sphere Shot  
  
**********  
  
On the way back, I talked to the Chocobo. "How come all the stupid stuff happens to me?" I asked it irritably. "I bet none of this crap ever happens to people like, I dunno, Balgerda or somebody." Whose silk robe I was still wearing--and getting dirty. Tysh. You couldn't wash silk, could you? "I mean, I get stranded in the middle of the lake at Winter Wonderland, get drafted to play in a tournament with a bunch of complete strangers who all think I suck, and end up hanging out with a Crusader, of all people, and a guy whose ego is so big he has to have two people following around behind him to carry it. Then I nearly get roasted, mauled and shot at, dumped on a flying ship in the middle of nowhere, and I don't even get a full night's sleep because I'm running all over Spira to stop some lunatic I went out with twice from blowing up a bunch of extremely short people with blue skin. I'd laugh if it weren't all so sad." The Chocobo did not appear to be disheartened by any of this. "Seriously, this is all so miserably improbable. It's like a bad fanfic or something." Still no laugh. The crowd was really dead today. "Oh, forget it," I grumbled. It forgot it.  
  
Having determined that my journey was not going to be studded with brilliant conversation, I kept my mouth shut and slackened off into a trot when I reached the shoreline. I left Mr. (or possibly Ms., and I was not checking) Chocobo the Uninteresting and Completely Lacking in the Sense of Humor Department at the front entrance to the stadium and slogged all the way upstairs to Bickson's apartment.  
  
Inside I found Bickson, Naaga, Naida, and the entire collector's set of Luca Goers sitting on the floor playing Monopoly. Of course, they were all so insanely happy to see me they could barely contain their excitement.  
  
"My chocobo," said Naida.  
  
"My girlfriend," said Bickson.  
  
"My sister," said Naaga.  
  
"My ROBE!" said Balgerda at a volume of maybe 80 trillion decibels, rushing up to examine the slightly muddy hem.  
  
"Uhm, yeah, see, about that--" I began. She was staring at me, and I realized I didn't really have a good excuse, even a fake one. My policy is when you can't come up with a believable lie, always tell the truth: it usually makes far less sense. "--I was saving the free world," I finished lamely.  
  
"You'd better pay for that," she grumped, sitting back on the floor. It was her turn.  
  
"So who's winning?" I asked casually, parking myself on the carpet next to Naaga, who was trying to decide which of the Goers to fawn over first.  
  
"Him," Graav grunted, pointing at Raudy. "That loser has hotels on the Mi'ihen AND Djose Highroads."  
  
"Yeah, but I own the Bevelle Highbridge," Abus cut in defensively, naming the most expensive property on the board. "This could turn around any minute."  
  
"Oh, give me a break. If you play blitzball as badly as you play Monopoly, we're definitely going down tomorrow night," scoffed Raudy.  
  
"What's tomorrow night?" I asked as Balgerda handed over 5000 paper gil to Naaga, whose property she'd just landed on.  
  
"We're playing the Psyches. Our first game of the league season." Doram picked up the dice and rolled them. "C'mon, c'mon, snake eyes...!" They came up a four and a three. "Shit."  
  
"First game?" My eyes narrowed. League games are played on three consecutive nights each week: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. My watch said today was Friday. And that meant... "When are the Aurochs playing?" I asked.  
  
"Tonight. Kilika Beasts," was Naida's terse reply. "All right, Pigtails, that one's mine. Nobody touches those dice until she pays up. What about it, Blondie, you playing tonight?"  
  
"*Somebody* forgot to mention it," I hissed at Bickson.  
  
He raised his hands as if to fend off an attack. "I thought you should rest up."  
  
"Fat chance, babe. Anyone know if the Aurochs are already there?"  
  
"Yeah, those losers sailed into town about an hour ago." Graav yawned.  
  
"Whaddaya know, I still got time to grab lunch." I disappeared into the bathroom, found one of my uniforms hanging over the shower curtain rod, and grabbed it. Within minutes, I was fully clad in bodysuit, boots, gloves, Golden Arm, and goggles, and I was ready to rock.  
  
"Anyone needs me, I'll be downstairs," I announced.  
  
No response. As I left the room, I heard Graav find the extra 20000 gil I could've told him Naaga always keeps in her sleeve when she plays Monopoly. Chaos ensued. Somehow, I was glad I was going someplace sane.  
  
*****  
  
I made the trek down to the locker room quickly and with my head down, and if anyone recognized me, they didn't say anything about it. The reporters were mostly out in the square doing fluff pieces on what people thought of the epic love story of Maester Seymour and Lady Yuna, who had apparently just gotten married. So Tidus and the others hadn't been in time to stop the wedding. I wondered how he was feeling right now--probably trying to rationalize the murder of a maester as justifiable homicide, I snorted mentally. Then I laughed at myself. Even Tidus wasn't crazy enough to kill a maester.  
  
The streets were buzzing with gossip and deals going down. Even inside the lobby, I could hear Mitza in the square hawking souvenier commemorative plates to mark the occasion. He probably had a megaphone or something. It seemed like everyone was interested in the match between the serenely cold half-Guado, half-human maester and the upbeat, earnest young summoner.  
  
The Aurochs definitely were. As I approached the locker room, I could hear their voices through the door. "Man, this bites!" Jassu was exploding. Thump! Thump! as he pounded his fist on something, probably the wall. "Lady Yuna shouldn't have to marry him just 'cuz he's a Maester!"  
  
"But she loves him, doesn't she?" Letty sounded puzzled. Trust the math nerd not to get it.  
  
"Lets, where in Spira have you been? Even I figured out she's got a crush on Brudda." Botta said this in his you-are-the-biggest-cretin-alive-and-I-find-it-totally-inconceivable-that- we-are-even-members-of-the-same-species voice. "You think maybe the temple's makin' her do it?"  
  
"No! Why would the temple try to make Lady Yuna do something she doesn't want to do?!" Keepa's voice was higher-pitched than it should've been. He sounded almost frantic.  
  
"I don't know." Datto sounded unconvinced. "The temple's been doing some really str--"  
  
Letty made the hacking cut-off sound I'd come to recognize as his signal for "shut up." "We shouldn't be talking about the temple this way," he whispered. "You never know who could be listening--"  
  
"Like me, for example?" I swung on the door and plopped my stuff in my locker. Cue the dramatic pose.  
  
"Linna?" they echoed with one voice.  
  
"Clap clap yay, you got my name right. Why are you staring at me like that? Are you not mind-bogglingly happy to see me?"  
  
"My mind is bogglin', all right," Jassu said. "Yo, Keepa, get out to the docks and tell that replacement guy we don't need him."  
  
"We hired an extra player. He was working on the ship and we hadn't signed anyone else so we figured what the hell, y'know?" Botta explained. "Only problem was, he was defense, and we already got too many of those, ya?"  
  
"How do you figure?" Jassu sulked.  
  
"Dude, when's the last time you learned a new tech? I'm the SOUL of the defense here."  
  
"All right, all right, squabble later, ya?" Letty was taking charge, in that I-am-so-hassled-and-I-do-this-against-my-will voice that all his orders were issued in. "Linna, you here for the game?"  
  
"If you guys'll take me," I said.  
  
"Do I hear any complaints?" There probably wouldn't've been any, except the possible wisecrack from Botta, but he overrode the pause where they would've been voiced anyway. "HEARING no complaints, you're back on right forward. Datto'll take left. Keepa, go tell that Zalitz guy we want our money back." Keepa scooted.  
  
"So what are you doing back so quickly?" the captain-elect asked when the goalie was done scooting.  
  
"My plans were...suddenly canceled. I had to hitch a ride back." I stuck to my other policy regarding sticky explanatory situations, which is: be as terse as possible and try to look authoritative. You'd be amazed how often it works.  
  
Letty probably would've kept asking, but Botta, who's a lot more perceptive, came around and slapped me on the back. "Well, it's good ta have ya back, LinLin. Ya gonna lead us all to victory?"  
  
"Shit, I hope so. We can't go back ta losin' now!" Jassu pounded one fist into his head, something I was pretty sure he'd picked up from Tidus. "We got a REPUTATION ta uphold, ya?"  
  
"Ya!" I agreed, pumping my own fist. "Let's go show 'em what we're made of."  
  
*****  
  
I expected the awayside sphere pool to feel claustrophobic, but the concrete walls were starting to feel like the arms of an old friend, or maybe a warm old jacket you've had forever that you can just sling over your shoulders. Or it could've been that I didn't get enough sleep the night before. Either way, I was feeling good.  
  
"And we're back for the second game of the first round of the league season, Bobba!" Good old Jimma's voice ran over the intercom. I looked up from my position crouching against the wall, as usual.  
  
"That's right, Jimma. Tonight we have the Yevon Cup champions, the Besaid Aurochs, playing the veteran islanders, the Kilika Beasts!"  
  
"The Beasts are going to put up a tough fight tonight, Bobba. Ace Vuroja is still a powerhouse center, and Kulukan, the Beasts' defensewoman, has been almost unstoppable lately. Plus, their goalie--"  
  
"--is one of those conspiracy goalies who for some reason looks exactly like one of the forwards," Botta finished. We all stared at him. "Check it out sometime. It's a conspiracy, lemme tell you."  
  
Even I cracked a grin as the announcers continued. "But they're definitely not the only strong team out here tonight, Jimma," Bobba said. "The Aurochs are the top team in the league right now, and with good reason. Their combination of unstoppable forwards, excellent defensemen, and a vigilant goalkeeper, cemented together by their truly momentous teamwork, makes them tough as nails to defeat!"  
  
"Ain't these the same guys that called us the worst team ever two years ago?" Jassu asked.  
  
"There's one player on the Aurochs' side that's definitely worth mentioning, though," Jimma put in.  
  
"Right you are, Jimma. Right forward Linna, the top scorer in the Yevon Cup tournament, is returning for this league season. Despite her appearance as a complete newbie to the league at the start of the tournament, her Nap Shot 3 has quickly made her a top contender. This is one girl who's got enough moxie to spare!"  
  
"Moxie, huh?" Letty asked, looking at me.  
  
"I like it!" pronounced Keepa.  
  
"You know," Datto said finally, "I think it works."  
  
I was quiet for a second, listening to the cheers from the stadium echoing all around us. Above the sphere, the sky would be a deep, rich blue, the way it had been two weeks ago at Lake Macalania when I'd sat down on the steps of the temple and waited to die. Those two weeks felt like a lifetime. But I'd made it.  
  
Yeah. I did have moxie.  
  
"Me too." I surveyed my teammates' faces. "You guys ready to go?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am!" they all shouted from the gut, pumping their fists in unison.  
  
I was ready too. And as I looked around at the five smiles of my friends in front of me, a thought flashed across my mind: This is my home now.  
  
Grinning, I made a run for the sphere pool and dove in headfirst. 


	35. Epilogue: Spin Ball

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
This is it, people, the end of the line. I'll have author's notes up soon, but at least now you know what happens to Linna. Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading the whole time--you guys are the best.  
  
Author's Notes: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
epilogue: Spin Ball  
  
**********  
  
A hunk of blonde hair fell into my eyes as I took my goggles off and looped them around my wrist. I could feel my spiraled pupils swirling as they dialated to compensate for the dim glow of the expanse beyond the clifftop. Wearily, those eyes scraped the cliff face around them. I'd never been to this place before, but I knew it. Like everyone else in Spira, I had seen it in my dreams. I was standing in the Farplane.  
  
Steeling myself, I shoved the lock of hair back behind my ear and walked straight to the edge of the cliff.  
  
"Mom," I whispered, "Can you hear me?"  
  
Out of the murky gloom in front of me something seemed to rise, and a chill slithered down my spine like cold sweat as the Pyreflies materialized. One by one, they circled around me and then formed themselves into a huge, swarming mass, until there were thousands of them clumped into the shape of a woman. The light they radiated was too bright to look at. Shielding my face with my arms, I turned away, and then the brilliance faded again.  
  
When I turned back, I felt like I was looking in the mirror.  
  
The woman standing--well, floating--before me had died when she was twelve years older than I was now, but she still could have passed for my twin sister. Her hair was cropped short and she was wearing an Al Bhed Psyches uniform, but the gently mocking curve of those lips, the delicate nose, and the emerald green eyes were all the same. Belatedly, I realized that she wasn't wearing her goggles. "Always a little slow on the uptake, weren't you?" I muttered to myself. "Just like she always said." I felt my fists clenching.  
  
Then I realized that I hadn't even started talking yet--tysh, I was going to have to talk to this...this thing--and I was already getting angry. If there had been any walls I would've banged my head on one of them. This felt really stupid. I was standing in the crack walk-in crystal ball of a defunct religion I'd never believed in in the first place, getting ready to talk to a swarm of bugs. I hate bugs. I hate mysticism. I hate having to deal with the past.  
  
Weeping from the other side of the clifftop brought me back to where I was standing. I glanced over sheepishly to see a woman wailing on the ground in front of the image of a young boy. The two of us were alone in the Farplane. Whatever I had to say, no one would hear it.  
  
I was still really tempted to turn around and walk out, but I knew Miyu was right, as always. It was time.  
  
"So," I began shakily, talking to the drifting fog stuff just beyond the image of my mother. "you talk at all?"  
  
She placed her gloved hands--of course she was still wearing her gloves--on her hips and watched me. Apparently the Pyreflies hadn't figured out how to synthesize voices yet. I struggled to remember what Miyu had told me. "The vision of the person you see will be only that, a vision." I remembered the wistful tone in her voice as she said that. "Most will speak to you only in memories," I remembered hearing that too. Remembered the way the tears hung in her eyes as she left. "They will disappear when you have made your peace with the past."  
  
Did he disappear when you saw him, Miyu? Bickson, did you come to terms with your parents' sacrifice, the fact that they died in poverty for you? Naaga, Rin, did you too face an icy, wordless Amirel?  
  
"Glad you're so enthusiastic about it," I snapped to the impatient-looking image of my mother. Then I sighed and sat down a few feet away from the edge of the cliff. "Look, I don't know whether you can hear me or not, and I really doubt it, but...there's some stuff I've wanted to say to you for a long time, okay?  
  
"I'm not really sure where to start, but I guess the best place is when you ran out on us and got yourself killed. Thanks a lot for that one, by the way. I really appreciated the life lesson of self-sufficiency at age ten. Yeah, yeah, I know it wasn't your fault, but guess what? I don't care. Naaga and I got dumped. I'll give Rin some credit for trying to take care of us as best he could, but he was totally clueless about raising two little girls. Sometimes trying just ain't good enough. About eight years ago, he gave up and ditched us. I tell you he gave up the game after you kicked it? He started a chain of travel agencies.  
  
"I was a real badass for a while there. I got pretty good at picking locks, so whenever we got hungry and I couldn't get hold of Rin, I'd just grab something. Eventually I got caught and Rin hired me as--you believe this?--a security consultant. For the agencies. I had to drop out of school--I slipped through the cracks of the Al Bhed public school system, what a bummer--but I was making good money, y'know? And I had enough time to study at night and blitz on my days off.  
  
"And then everything started to fall apart. Braska's Calm--which, by the way, started like two weeks after you died--ended. This was a little over three years ago. And of course, with Sin on the loose, Rin was worried about more serious matters than lock-picking, so I lost the job. He tried to get me one working at an Agency, but the only available spot was out at Macalania. I was worried about Naaga's safety with the fiends there and I couldn't leave her alone at Home for months on end, so I was trapped.  
  
"We were not in good shape. Rin helped us with apartment rent at first, and then when I had the job I paid for it, but after a while the bills weren't getting paid and the collectors started showing up at the door trying to reposess things.  
  
"So one day I was sitting in the bedroom with all the lights off, trying to pretend I wasn't home so the losers in the hallway would think we were out and buzz off, and the sphere-- which hadn't been disconnected yet--rang. It was Aniki, Cid's son, and he was going on about his cousin Yuna becoming a summoner. Before, Cid had always figured that if the Yevonites felt like going out and getting killed to stop Sin, that was their business, but the story changed when it was his niece's ass on the line. He set out on a campaign to kidnap all the summoners and keep them safe until we could come up with another way to beat Sin. Aniki had heard that Yuna and her guardians were headed out on Lake Macalania to hit the temple there, and he was looking for a team to go after them.  
  
"It was my perfect shot--he said he'd pay me for the work, so I'd be making money and getting a chance to scout out that travel agency. I volunteered, told Rin to find someone to watch Naaga for a few days for me, and took off.  
  
"Of course, it was a disaster. We didn't catch her, I didn't get paid, and I ended up starving on the steps of the temple because those idiotic Guado priests wouldn't let me in. I was getting ready to croak when my luck turned around. Yuna and her guardians walked straight up to me, and it turned out two of her guardians were blitzers for the Besaid Aurochs, and it turned out the Yevon Cup tournament was coming up and they were on the lookout for good players. So they signed me.  
  
"It was crappy at first. Most of the Aurochs really hated Al Bhed, and they definitely didn't want a woman on their team. It took a little Nap Shot 3ing to convince them that I could actually play. I pulled it off, though, and we won the tournament that year.  
  
"When it was over, I headed for Home, only to find the place in ashes. Somehow the Guado had found out that we were keeping the summoners and attacked the whole compound with fiends. Naaga and I made it out, but just barely.  
  
"In total desperation, we came back to Luca and I turned to the one person I could think of that might help--Bickson, this Goer forward I met during the tournament. He was incredible about the whole thing and let us use his apartment as a crashpad on the weekends when I was playing for the Aurochs. At first we stayed in Wakka's hut in Besaid when we were training during the week--kinda crowded, since there were a buncha Crusaders there too--but eventually we built ourselves a cute little hut, and it was pretty cool.  
  
"And then, a little more than two years ago, it finally happened. They killed Sin. Yuna brought the Eternal Calm. And after that, things started happening like crazy.  
  
"First off, I became the captain of the Aurochs, our last two captains having been those guardians of Yuna's. One of them, Wakka, came back and settled down to start a family in Besaid, but the other one--Tidus--was gone for almost the entire two years before he finally turned up again. They're both on the blitz circuit part-time again, but right now the guys and I are riding high and I'm loving it.  
  
"So...let's see. What's going on now that you'd care about? I guess you probably heard from Rin not too long ago." He too had come out with half-shed tears on his face. "So you know he hasn't settled down either, and that the travel agencies are like luxury hotels these days. He's really making a fortune for himself--and immediately dumping most of it back into the Home restoration project and other worthy causes, including some seriously generous donations to the Aurochs and the Psyches.  
  
"Our new Home is back in the desert, not far from where the old one was. It's still not totally complete, but enough of the complex is online that they're allowing people to move in. Naaga was one of the first to go back. These days she's--and I know you're going to want to cringe when you hear this--a designer for the Agencies. She always loved drawing, so now she's coming up with ideas for everything from the clothes the Agencies stock to the decor schemes of the rooms. It gives her a lot of room for traveling and being creative--not to mention dating. I finally managed to get her off Aniki, and now she's kinda-sorta seeing Botta, one of the Aurochs. Long-distance relationship. I don't know if it'll work out or not, but she's happy, so I guess that's the important thing.  
  
"You wouldn't know Miyu, but she's my best friend. I met her at the first tournament too. Anyway, she's a goalie for the Glories. Really cool human being. She's still blitzing right now, but one of these days I think she'll probably get into coaching--she's definitely patient enough to handle it, unlike you and me. She's a commuter like me, except her home base is here in Guadosalam. These days it seems like all the blitzers are bigtime commuters. Now that no one can blame the Al Bhed for Sin being around anymore, things are really starting to improve for us. Tidus actually learned our whole language, and he and I are teaching the Aurochs how to speak it. Even Wakka wants to learn. And now Cid and the others have been able to study the machina and figure out how they work, and they're using that knowledge to power things like a fleet of airships and ferries with engines. Now I can get from Besaid to Luca in less than two hours. They're calling it the Machina Revolution.  
  
"As for me..." I unstrapped my left glove and let it fall to the stone as I stretched my hand out. The diamond ring sparkled and flashed with the light of the Pyreflies as they passed. "Well, take a look. The guy is Bickson, that Goer forward I told you about. I was in and out every week, but as soon as he helped me install a hydroponic plant box in the window, we both knew I was never going to leave for good." I grinned. "We're both still blitzing full time. We've talked about it a lot, and we decided that maybe someday we'll settle down and have a horde of little blitzers or something, but right now neither one of us wants to give up the game. And no offense, but I'm not about to pull an Amirel."  
  
I put the glove back on and stared at the misty image in front of me. Maybe it was just my imagination, but she seemed calmer now--her hands were clasped in front of her body, and she had stopped shifting her weight around.  
  
"So I guess that's one thing you did for me," I continued. "You were a perfect example of what NOT to do. Every time I was tempted to drink at a party or get too close to some guy, I could think of you and see what I'd end up like--totally washed out at 35. Sad, huh? Well, I'm not going to make your mistakes. I'm going to do whatever it takes to stay on top. I'm going to be here as long as Vuroja.  
  
"You know why?" I could feel my eyes glinting. "Because it's not your dream I've been running after all this time, Mom. It's mine. Rin was right all along. You gave me life and a Golden Arm, but I got the rest of it on my own. I've fought every day for the last thirteen years so I could finally stand in front of you and say I did it. I'm a blitz ace."  
  
Now I was starting to cry, and the hot, angry tears were sliding down my cheeks and falling through the mists into oblivion. "I hate you, Mom! I hate you for all the times you yelled at me, and all the times you weren't there, and all the times you got drunk, and all the times you were with Rin when you should have been with us! I hate you for all the times you lied to me, and all the times you told me I killed your dreams! You know what it's like to be six years old and told you ruined your mother's life? You know what it's like to be ten and have to steal to feed your sister? No, you don't know, because you weren't around to see it! Because you ran out on me! I hate you!"  
  
I was screaming by this point and the tears were so hot I thought my skin would burn. The other woman had stopped weeping. My voice echoed through the silence.  
  
"Dammit, Mom," I whispered, "You couldn't even say it once."  
  
"I love you."  
  
My head snapped up and I stared at the image of my mother. She was still standing there, exactly as she had been before, but this time a single tear trailed down the side of her face. It had been her voice.  
  
And then she started to fade. I shot the Golden Arm out wildly, but my fingers sliced through thin air, scattering Pyreflies everywhere. I nearly fell off the cliff. Scrabbling for grips in the face of the stone, I ended up lying on my stomach near the edge, watching as my mother shattered into so many thousands of drops of light and vanished.  
  
"I love you too, Mom," I whispered to no one.  
  
*****  
  
As I broke through the sphere of the dead, I saw them waiting for me at the bottom of the staircase. Naaga was flopped upside down on the stone steps with Bickson leaning back next to her. Miyu was sitting primly on the bottom step like a lady. Rin was staring off into the Farplane mists. He turned towards me as I came down the stairs. Our eyes met, and I knew he understood that it was finally over.  
  
Naaga spun herself into a sitting position and stood up, Miyu brushing dust off herself as she followed. But it was Bickson who spoke first as he stood up and reached his hand out to me.  
  
"Hey, green eyes," he said. "Ready to go?"  
  
A grin curved across my face. "Yeah. Let's get out of here." I took his hand, smiling, and we turned back to face the world. 


	36. Character's Notes

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Y'know, most people have author's notes at the end of a story, but that's boring, right? I think it's better to let the characters speak for themselves. So...here they go! ^_^  
  
(Oh, and as for my message: thanks to everyone out there who read, reviewed, or helped in other ways. You guys are the best, and I hope you'll all continue to cheer for Linna!)  
  
Hey, Green Eyes  
  
by flame mage  
  
character's notes  
  
**********  
  
Linna: *walks into the Aurochs' locker room, throws her gear bag into her locker (which still won't shut right), and flops down on the bench* Cred, 900 gil a game is nowhere near enough for that level of drama. At least now I can finally cut the ham act and just win all my games flat-out.  
  
Bickson: And people think I'M arrogant?  
  
Linna: You are.  
  
Bickson: Oh, sure, Ms. Now-that-the-story's-over-I-can-go-back-to-kicking-butt.  
  
Linna: *props her chin up in her hand* Oh, yeah, like Sir Ego Trip is any bett--  
  
Rin: *clears throat* Miss Linna, I believe there was a point to making your readers sit through another section.  
  
Miyu: Yes. There are many people who are deserving of our thanks.  
  
Linna: Gotcha. *digs sphere out of bag and sets it up to record on top of the lockers, then lies back down* Okay, adoring public. This is the closest thing to a cast party we get in the wonderful world of blitz, and there are a shitload of people we need to thank. *rummages around somewhere in a [presumably] invisible pocket in her bodysuit and pulls out a long list of people that need to get thanked*  
  
Bickson: Oh, Yevon, this is gonna take a while. *puts his hands behind his head and leans back*  
  
Linna: You suck.  
  
Bickson: Hmm, maybe I should just take back that ring and--  
  
Linna: Now you REALLY suck. *to sphere* Okay. First off, we want to thank Squaresoft for making _the_ coolest game ever and including _the_ coolest minigame ever, blitzball!  
  
Naaga: *returns from the Goers' locker room, where she has been trying to decide whether to fawn over Graav or Abus (or Raudy, who looks just like Abus anyway)* Hiya.  
  
Miyu: Oh, hello, Naaga.  
  
Naaga: Ooh, what's this? A sphere camera? *flashes her supermodel smile at it* I'm ready for my close-up.  
  
Linna: Come have your close-up with my fist. We're trying to record the damn thank-you message.  
  
Naaga: Let me read the next one! *snatches the list* We'd also like to thank them for creating hyperubercool players like...uhm, well, it says "us," but I'm an original character, so this is people like Linnie, Bick, Rin, and Miyu, right?  
  
Miyu: Not to mention--  
  
Tidus: *bursting in the door* Howdy.  
  
The Other Aurochs: *following him in and ad-libbing* Hey. Hi. Hello. Wassup? etc.  
  
Miyu: --the Aurochs.  
  
Tidus: Oh, this is the thank-you thing, isn't it?  
  
Linna: Yeah. You're late, by the way.  
  
Tidus: Then I'll do the next one. *to sphere camera* We also want to think Naida Dark, Kenzi, and all six of the Al Bhed Psyches for paving the way for Al Bhed blitzball fics. We couldn't've done it without y--well, maybe we could've, but it would've sucked a lot more.  
  
Jassu: Ya, we really like them. Their influence is the reason we Aurochs got personalities, right, dawgs?  
  
Letty: As opposed to bein' faceless supporting characters that no one really cares about?  
  
Rin: Exactly.  
  
Botta: Oh, yeah, the author also wants ta thank Joe, Erik, Thong-Boy, and a whole horde a others for helpin' with the Ebonics. Sorry if we somehow offended anyone; we think it's a really cool dialect of English and we wish we weren't too white to speak it.  
  
Jassu: *puffs chest out*  
  
Naaga: *sensing that she's losing attention* We'd really really like to thank everyone who reviewed!  
  
Linna: Oh, yeah. *to camera* Reviewers, I love you and I will give you my firstborn, especially if it ends up looking like him. *jerks thumb at Bickson*  
  
Bickson: Hey!  
  
Linna: Pierson, SQ, DSKatsuki, Glass Angel, miaowne, and all the other people who reviewed once and kept reviewing, you guys are absolutely the best. Your support kept me going, oy ghuf?  
  
Miyu: Oh, that reminds me. We'd like to thank Barak Michener, the creator of the Bikanel Al Bhed- English translator. Without it, no one would have any idea what Linna's going on about.  
  
Bickson: Some of us still don't.  
  
Linna: Peda sa.  
  
Botta: *stage-whispering to Jassu* HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE WE'VE HAD A LINE?  
  
Jassu: Too long. *to Linna* Y'know, one or two of those brilliant reviewers asked if there's any hope for a sequel.  
  
Naaga: Unh-huh! Don't they get to see me being cute some more?  
  
Linna: Tysh. This was a pretty complete story arc.  
  
Bickson: Hey, you could tell them what finally happened with that whole Yevon-blitzball conspiracy. And they never did find out the details of my shady past.  
  
Miyu: *claps hands* That's right! There are so many beautiful gaping plot holes we have to fill!  
  
Linna: All right already, but I better get paid overtime for this. *to sphere* Okay, people, here's the deal. Unless it turns out that we all make miraculous appearances in FFX-2, there probably will not be a direct sequel to this story.  
  
Rin: ...however, we have a proposal you may find equally engaging.  
  
Linna: If the mage gets on her lazy ass and writes the rest of it, we're gonna appear once again in a brief (mebbe seven parts) side-story called "Green Eyes in Overdrive" that'll answer all those lingering questions you got.  
  
Naaga: You'll also get to see us try to fight. It'll be great!  
  
Bickson: So, fanboys and -girls, if you want to see some more of this *gestures to self* studly blitzer, leave us lots of nice reviews.  
  
Naaga: *aside to Linna* Ooh, maybe he really does sleep in just boxers!  
  
Miyu: *coughs delicately* Speaking of seeing "some more of that"... we do have a small gift for those of you who have read this far.  
  
Linna: Yep. This is the moment you've all been waiting for. The mage drew a mock cover page for the non-existent bound edition of this story, and it includes pictures of all of us. You can check it out here: "http://www.geocities.com/wineredheart/hgecover.jpg"  
  
Tidus: Is that it?   
  
Aurochs (who still haven't gotten enough lines): *ad-libbing* Yeah, should be, guess so, etc.  
  
Miyu: Many thanks once again for all everyone's support!  
  
Linna: We love ya, fantypes! *turns sphere off and looks around* Okay, who's ready to blitz? 


End file.
